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ABBY A. JUDSON. 



A HAPPY YEAR; 



OR, 



ifty-two Letters to The Banner of Light 



BY 



/ 

Abby A. Judson, 



Daughter of ADONIRAM JUDSON, Missionary to the Burmese Empire. 






Published by the Author. 



Newark, N. J. : 
Baker Printing Co. 






a^ 



26789 



BY Miss ABBY A. JUDSON, 

In the offloe of the Librarian of Congress, 

at Washington, D. C. 



1899, 



TWO COPIES REC'iVcD. 









THIS BOOK IS 

BeDicatefc 

TO MY BELOVED BROTHER ELNATHAN, 

WHO WAS LIBERATED FEBRUARY 8, 1897, AND IS NOW WAITING 

AND WATCHING FOR ME ON THE OTHER SIDE 

OF THE SHINING RIVER. 



CONTENTS. 

Page 

Introduction 7 

Letter 1 : Insanity ameliorated by Spiritualism 11 

Letter 2 : Oculists and Opticians 14 

Letter 3 : How my father saved my eye 16 

Letter 4 : My mother's spirit light 18 

Letter 5 : " Enny " 20 

Letter 6 : Spirit aid before the removal of the cataract 23 

Letter 7 : J. O. Barrett, and " The Medium of the Rockies" . . 25 

Letter 8 : Accusation of " Fraud and Filth " 28 

Letter 9 : Moral purity essential to good mediumship 30 

Letter 10 : Motives for seeking mediumship 33 

Letter 1 1 : Home treatment for the insane 35 

Letter 12 : Golden Jubilee of Modern Spiritualism 37 

Letter 13 : Exteriorization of the motor forces in man 39 

Letter 14 : My upholstered chair 42 

Letter 15 : Solid grounds for happiness 44 

Letter 10 : Kate Field and Lilian Whiting 47 

Letter 17 : Our state after death conditioned by our life here. . 49 

18 : Our spirit world according to astronomy 52 

Letter 19 : Combining church doctrines with Spiritualism 54 



Page 

Letter 20 : Music for Spiritualist meetings 57 

Letter 21 : England and the United States 59 

Letter 22 : Selfishness and love - 62 

Letter 23 : Some visits to ' ' Orthodox " churches 65 

Letter 24 Calvinistic terror of death and hell 68 

Letter 25 : Personal experiences 71 

Letter 26 : Spiritual development better than mediumship .... 73 

Letter 27 : Creeds, and the muzzling of ministers 76 

Letter 28 : Magnetic harmony 80 

Letter 29 : Sanitation : humanity 83 

Letter 30 : The simple basis of a true philosophy 87 

Letter 31 : Three ways to communicate with spirits . .' 90 

Letter 32 : Loneliness banished by Spiritualism 94 

Letter 33 : Inspiration in writing and speaking 98 

Letter 34 : The worship of Jesus 102 

Letter 35 : Diet versus drugs 106 

Letter 36 : The Czar's proposal for disarmament 109 

Letter 37 : The troubles of some investigators 113 

Letter 38 : The importance of organization 117 

Letter 39 : Belief in God 121 

Letter 40 : My morning-glories 126 

Letter 41 : Gabriel Max's picture, " Our Ancestors" 130 

Letter 42 : The soul expressed by the physical form 135 

Letter 43 : Sadness driven away by a thought journey 139 

Letter 44 : Opinions regarding Jesus 143 

Letter 45 : A tolerant spirit 146 



Page 

Letter 46 : Self-development without mortal aid 150 

Letter 47 : Real evidence 154 

Letter 48 : Old age transfigured by Spiritualism 158 

Letter 49 : Revering those beyond and above us 162 

Letter 50 : Intensely cold weather and its cause 166 

Letter 51 : The excising and dismembering fad 171 

Letter 52 : Reunion with our dear ones in the spirit-world 174 




INTRODUCTION. 



This little book is called for several reasons ' '• A 
Happy Year. " 

The author has always lived a very busy life since 
entering on womanhood, as a teacher for thirty-three 
years, and later as a lecturer and writer. The lecturing 
days are now ended, owing to the waning of physical 
vigor; and owing to impaired vision, her literary work 
during the past year has been limited to the answering 
of letters, the preparation of these weekly letters for 
The Banner of Light, and an occasional article for 
The Progressive Thinker. This comparative rest 
and seclusion have been grateful indeed to one who has 
labored so long in the busy walks of life. 

But this is not the only reason that this has been a 
happy year. There are two others, both weightier 
than the one just cited. 

In 1860, a dearly loved brother suffered a sun- stroke, 
and after distress that it is hoped is now forgotten in 
the happy spirit world, he suffered incarceration in an 
Insane Hospital for thirty-two years, until in February, 
1896, she was allowed to take him to her own rooms, 
to spend one year in a howie, cared for by the one who 
never forsook, and who loved him more than any other 
mortal could do. His well-nigh crushed spirit revived 
under the ministerations of tender care and watchful 
love, and in February, 1897, he was liberated from his 



suffering body, and passed to the arms of his father and 
mother, of whose care he had been deprived since 1845. 
By this joyful event, the almost lifelong distress of 
his sister over his manifold and deepening woes for 
thirty-seven years was brought to an end, and her life 
was no longer saddened by the thought of the dreadful 
cloud that came so early over his pure and sensitive 
spirit. Reader, has not the author reason to rejoice 
with an unending and grateful joy! Instead of the 
gloom, and confinement of hospital life, he now dwells 
in immortal spheres. Instead of the companionship of 
sufferers like himself, ever pacing with unutterable 
pain at the heart, like the doomed in the Hall of Eblis 
so vividly delineated in " Vathek," he has the com- 
panionship of sweet, bright spirits — father, mother, 
brothers, sisters, and the vanished friends of youth — 

" Who sing, and singing in their glory move, 
And wipe the tears forever from his eyes." 

The third special reason why this year has been a 
happy one, is that after the partial blindness of 1897, 
the extraction of the cataractous lenses from both eyes 
followed in each case by the secondary operation, she 
was at the beginning of this happy year fitted with 
glasses that give her excellent vision with one of her 
eyes. Owing to a series of unfortunate circumstances, 
the other eye does not serve her for reading, and is the 
source of much pain. Still, the power to read, write, 
and sew, for short periods of time, is a glad condition 
compared with being unable to read at all for several 
months, and the constant dread of becoming totally 
blind, after art should do her best. 



9 



Three reasons why this year may be called a happy 
one have been defined, but there are many more. One 
of the greatest of these is the love and sympathy ex- 
pressed by countless well-wishers in nearly every State 
and Territory in the Union, from Canada and Mexico 
and from countries beyond the deep-sounding Atlantic. 
Her love and thanks go to each and all. 

The date appended to each letter denotes the day on 
which it was written. They usually appeared in the 
Banner of Light about thirteen days later. The first 
appeared in that high-toned and valuable paper, Jan- 
uary 22, 1898; and the fifty-second, January 14, 1899. 

The underlying and all- pervasive reason for happi- 
ness has not yet been expressed. The author has had 
that for eleven years — the fact that Spiritualism is 
true. Without that, this world were a desert, death 
a terror, and life beyond all uncertain. With that, 
blindness were endurable, this life a joyful journey, 
death, natural and beautiful, and the Beyond tinted 
with the rosy hues of early morning, to melt into the 
transcendant glory of eternity's perfect day. 
Your friend, 

Abby A. Judson. 



Arlington, N. J., Dec. 19, 1898. 



MISS JUDSON'S BOOKS. 



"Why She Became A' Spiritualist." 

In cloth, 2(>4 pages, $1.00. 

"A Happy Year ; or, Fifty-two Letters to The Banner of 
Light." 

In leatherette binding, scarlet and gold, 178 pages. One copy 75 
cents; five copies, to one address, $3.00. 

" From Night to Morn ; or An Appeal to the Baptist 
Church." 
Pamphlet, 32 pages, 15 cents, ten copies for $1.00. 

"The Bridge Between Two Worlds." 

217 pages. In cloth, $1.00; paper covers, 75 cents. 
Each of the above contains a portrait of the author. 
4 ' Development of Mediumship by Terrestrial Magnetism." 

In cloth. 28 pages, 50 cents. 

These books can be obtained by applying to Abby A. Judson, 
Arlington, N. J. 

Remit by P. O. Order or Express Order. Not in stamps. 

Miss Judson's general address is Arlington, N. J., her letters 
being forwarded from there, wherever she may be. 



"Why She Became a Spiritualist" contains twelve lect- 
ures and embodies a clear exposition of the teachings of Spirit- 
ualism. It has had a wide sale, and is conceded to be a standard 
work on the subject. 

"From Night to Morn" is just the thing to put in the 
hands of church members, and of all inquirers. It does not 
antagonize; it wins, and is doing an immense work in removing 
prejudice. 

" The Bridge Between Two Worlds" is a book on develop- 
ment, and embodies all that is in " Development of Mediumship 
by Terrestrial Magnetism," with a great amount of additional 
matter. Its dedication is as follows: " This book is dedicated to 
all earnest souls, who desire, by harmonizing their physical bodies 
with universal nature, and their souls with the higher intelligences, 
to thus come into closer connection with the purer realms of the 
spirit world." It is made up of practical precepts and pure phil- 
osophy, and will assist all who read it to acquire a higher physi- 
cal, mental and spiritual culture. 

"A Happy Year" is the last published of Miss Judson's 
works. 



LETTER ONE. 

Insanity Ameliorated by Spiritualism. 

January 9, 1898. ' 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light: 

My brother Elnathan had a sunstroke in 1860, fol- 
lowed by brain fever; was sent to an insane hospital in 
1864, and remained under the charge of " experts " on 
insanity until 1896. I could never forsake him, and, 
though his condition was such that seeing him gave me 
great pain, I visited him from time to time and sent 
him gifts on his birthdays and at Christmas. I clung 
ever to the hope of being with him in his last hours. 

In December, 1892, I was visiting m Bloomington, 
111., where I met Amanda M. Thayer, whose medium- 
ship has been largely instrumental in building up Spirit- 
ualism in that section. Lingering with her one day at 
the dinner table she saw our old family physician, Dr. 
Timothy Gordon, of Plymouth, Mass., under whose 
supervision arrangements were made to send my brother 
originally to an insane hospital. Fully recognizing his 
identity, by Miss Thayer's vivid description, I asked 
him how long my brother would live. He said about 
four years, and he thought well of my going East to be 
near him. My brother's transition took place in four 
years and six weeks from that time. 

I came East in October, 1894, and from that date till 
I took him home in February, 1896, I visited him sev- 
enty-one times, carrying him loving gifts and teaching 
him Spiritualism. Gradually I began to " see the light 
of thought come playing softly over lip and brow. " 

One of the doctors asked me what I did to my brother 
to make him so much better. 



L2 A HAPPY YEAR. 

In my visits to my brother I said over and over to 
him, as to a little child, that our mother was with him 
often, that she loved him dearly, that his soul was the 
same as ever, though men judged him insane; that he 
would be exquisitely happy when freed from his dis- 
eased body, and that my loving thoughts were with 
him wherever I went. He began to realize his mother's 
presence, for he was a sensitive, and much in his con- 
duct that was called insanity was due to being obsessed 
by dark spirits. 

When his left side became partially paralyzed I was 
allowed to take him home. Then came the tug of war, 
for the dark spirits who had held him so long came the 
very first evening, and dreadful oaths and frightful ob- 
scene words came from lips that never before spoke 
wrongly in my presence. Dismayed to my heart's core, 
I engaged the aid of a male nurse, who stayed nine 
weeks, and then left for other work. He was succeeded 
by one who came well recommended for hospital work, 
whom I discharged in six weeks for unkindness to my 
brother. After discharging him, I made no more en- 
gagements to lecture, and from June 17, 1896, till his 
transition, February 8, 1897, I took entire charge of 
him, day and night, alone. 

The first few months were dreadful. Alone in the 
house with him, as his screams forbade other inmates, 
I fought the battle with those dark, revengeful, or des- 
pairing spirits; and at last, through spirit aid, and 
spirit aid alone, I conquered. Our father and our 
mother stood by me, and the spells of obsession became 
less frequent and less violent. Learning what lines of 
thought opened the door to the low spirits, I taught my 
brother how to think and how to use his will against 
them. My will, reinforced by his own, made the last 
four months of his earth-life so calm and sweet that we 
moved into the house of friends. Though Seventh Day 
Adventists, with views almost antipodal to mine in 
many respects, their patience and their sympathy 
cheered us both. 



A HAPPY YEAR. 13 

His bright intellect, his loving spirit, and his fortitude 
in pain, made him again what he was in youth, perhaps 
the finest character I have known. Some loves of earth 
fade away in the clear light of the spirit-world. Not so 
with my love for him, and I can say, with the old Ger- 
man ballad: 

' ' Him loved I ever, him love I to-day : 
And him will I love forever and aye." 

He comes but little to the earth-plane, where he suf- 
fered so long, and is then carefully guarded, as it is still 
unsafe for him; but when I am alone he sometimes 
shows me the clear light of the form and the color 
which marks his identity, and I always know that he 
loves me, and that he is happy. 

Had Spiritualism done only this for me, restoring my 
brother to sanity, that were enough. But it has done 
everything for me. 

" It is my guide, my light, my all; 

It bade my dark forebodings cease: 
And through the storm and danger's thrall 
Has led me to the port of peace." 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



14 A HAPPY YEAR. 

LETTER TWO. 

Oculists and Opticians. 

January 16, 1898. 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light: 

I am happy to be able to state that the two operations 
performed on my right eye in New York City, have re- 
sulted in perfect success, and that the operation per- 
formed on the left eye has improved its vision to some 
extent. All the true sciences untold to us the undeviat- 
ing character of the laws of the universe, and happy are 
we who live in an age when these laws are better under- 
stood than ever before. 

When the opaque lens has been removed, if there is 
no other trouble with the eye, colors look clearer and 
more beautiful than before. It was so in my own case. 
When the impeding lens of the right eye was removed, 
on the 11th of last November, I exclaimed at the clear 
blue of the sky. But, though the parts of the eye are 
clear, the removal of the lens affects the r efracting 
power of the humors ,and this is corrected by artificial 
lenses in the spectacles. 

To obtain the best result, this New York surgeon 
likes to divide the remaining back casing of the lens a 
number of weeks after the removal of the lens itself. 
By two dainty cross-cuts this filmy capsule is divided 
into four parts, which roll back, leaving a perfectly free 
access to the rays of light. This is called the secondary 
operation, and this is what he has done to the unfor- 
tunate left eye, which was operated on elsewhere last 
May. 

In May, 1897, the tiny wound broke open on the third 
day; and being allowed to heal without interference, 
the result was a cystoid scar, which adheres to the iris 



A HAPPY YEAR. 15 

and impedes its natural function, which is to contract 
or dilate freely in looking- at different objects. 

I have been thus particular, for I now come to the 
sad part of my narration, and tell my sympathising 
readers why it is that, though I can now see very well, 
it is yet impossible to read, write or sew more than two 
or three minutes at a time without an irritating pain in 
the eye that was operated on last May. This cannot 
now be remedied. The adhering portion of the left iris 
cannot now be cut away, and I must bear this thorn in 
the flesh as best I may. 

How wonderful the skill by which the surgeon can 
prescribe to the optician the exact form of the glasses 
to be made! A variation of the tenth part of a hair's 
breadth wrong, and the glass is wrong. And yet far 
more skill is employed by Nature in many billions of 
human eyes now used on the earth plane, to say noth- 
ing of the eyes of all the animals. And no human skill 
has ever made an optical instrument equal to the human 
eye. The utmost man can do is to follow Nature. 
" Art can obey, but not surpass. " 

As finite beings, what can we know of God, or In- 
finite Intelligence? Only by its manifestations in uni- 
versal law. No more can we ever know than this. To 
this law do we bow. To this law do we endeavor to 
conform. When deviating from this law causes pain, 
to this pain do we submit. Better to suffer pain from 
violated law than live in a lawless universe. 

I am thankful to see again, to walk again with my 
fellows, seeing like them. But, were it mine to choose, 
better physical blindness than spiritual blindness! In 
a subsequent letter I hope to be permitted to tell some 
of the spiritual sights, some of the angelic ministrations, 
that soothed my pain, and, in spite of bandaged eyes, 
brought some of heaven before my inner vision. 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



10 A HAPPY YKAR. 



LETTER THREE. 

How my Father, Adoniram Judson, who 

passed to the Spirit side of Life in 

1 850, saved my Eye. 

January 23, 1898. 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light : 

It has been remarked that if there were no eyes to 
see, light would not exist; if there were no ears to hear, 
then no sound; in other words, light and sound are 
only effects of vibration on certain nerves of the body. 
While this may be true, it is impossible for us not to 
accept the testimony of our own senses; and on this 
testimony we believe that the sun, stars, sentient 
beings on the earth-plane, flowers, music, and human 
voices do exist. They exist to you and me because 
we see and hear tokens on which we found our belief. 
It is not the eye that sees, it is not the ear that hears, 
it is the soul within, the real being that uses these 
organs in order thus to know of a physical universe. 

In like manner, the soul within, the real being, 
believes in the existence of a spiritual universe, because 
phenomena are presented to the inner eye and the inner 
ear that are the tokens of its existence. If these tokens 
are accepted as evidence regarding the material uni- 
verse, it is surely fair to accept them in regard to the 
spiritual universe. To be sure, they are only phenom- 
ena in either case. As such, they give us belief, but 
not knowledge. When it comes to really knowing, the 
only thing that a finite being can really know is his 
own mental existence. " I think, therefore I am." 

The philosophic and high-minded editor of The Monist 
says that all beings who have ever existed, exist within 
each one of us ; and when you see your deceased father, 



A HAPPY YEAR. 17 

it is because he is momentarily projected from your 
own interior being. That is the Monist way of look- 
ing at it. The Spiritualist way is quite different. The 
Spiritualist says: "I see my deceased father, because 
he really exists individually outside of me; and I see 
him by using the eyes of my spiritual body, which can 
sense the vibrations of the more ethereal mode of ex- 
istence which is his, since he passed out of his fleshly 
body." That is the way in which I regard these spirit- 
ual phenomena. They prove to me that spiritual 
beings exist, just as seeing a man go by the house 
proves to me that he exists, and that he did go by the 
house. 

Last November, when I lay in the hospital with both 
eyes closely bandaged, and wondering what would be 
the result of the operation, I saw my father come in at 
the door. His face looked anxious, but as I thus real- 
ized that he was there to help me, a great wave of 
encouragement rolled over my soul. 

The great danger after the removal of a cataractous 
lens is lest the patients tear off the bandages, to relieve 
the itching and the irksomeness caused by lying flat so 
long. Unruly patients sometimes do this, and the best 
intentioned patient might do it when asleep. Rubbing 
the eye would break open the tiny wound, and per- 
haps make the operation ineffectual forever. 

On the eighth night after the lens was removed, I 
had a terrifying dream. A dead girl would get up and 
walk close to my side, upstairs, downstairs, and every- 
where. I screamed for aid, but none came, for all 
were terrified and had fled. The fright awoke me, and 
I found that my right hand had pushed aside the mask 
and the bandages, and was just at the partly healed 
eye. I replaced the bandages and mask, and put my 
hand under the bedclothes. 

I lay wondering why I should have so dreadful a 
dream. Suddenly I realized that the dream woke me 
and saved my eye. Some good spirit, I thought, took 



IS a HAPPY V EAR. 

that means of arousing me. Instantly there stood my 
father, his faee not anxious this time, but calm, glori- 
fied, triumphant. It may be that some undeveloped 
spirit got control of my hand, and thought to prevent 
my future usefulness by ruining the wounded eye. 
Paul says truly: "We wrestle not against flesh and 
blood, but against principalities, against powers, against 
spiritual wickedness in high places." But I had no 
fear after that, for I knew that my father would be a 
match for them. 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



LETTER FOUR. 

My Mother's Spirit Light. 

January 30, 1898. 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light: 

It seems to be one of the laws of spiritual progression 
that while the higher can come to the lower, in order 
to assist those who are seeking to rise, yet the lower can 
ascend only as they become fitted to do so. Spirits of 
unusual brightness have been through the lower grades 
of the great school, to which they can return at will; 
but those of the lower benches must go on step by step, 
and their progression will be the more rapid as they try 
to assist those who are still less advanced than they. 

Most of those who pass out of the body linger for 
awhile near the earth-plane, and are easily seen in their 
spirit form by the clairvoyant. As their development 
advances their forms become more ethereal, though 
they always retain a likeness to the former fleshly body. 
As they advance to higher conditions, though they are 
just as recognizable by those whose home is on their 
plane, the form is not seen by the ordinary clairvoyant, 



A HAPPY YEAR. 19 

but they appear as lights to him, though the soul can 
always at will assume a grosser spirit form than can be 
seen by spiritual eyes on or near the earth-plane. 

Dante, though his "Inferno" is wofully marred by 
the horrible views taught in the thirteenth century, yet 
unfolds many spiritual truths in his " Paradiso. " Taken 
by his arisen guide, Beatrice, to the upper realms, he 
sees such spirits as St. John and Thomas Aquinas only 
as lights, though they, of course, knew each other by 
their forms. And these different characteristic lights 
he learned to recognize. 

All this tallies with my own experience as a clairvoy- 
ant. When my spiritual vision began, nine years ago, 
I saw my father, whose transition took place in 1850, 
many, many times. As time passed on, I saw him less 
and less, and have scarcely seen him of late, except the 
two occasions at the hospital, as described in my last 
letter, when he took the old earth appearance to cheer and 
strengthen me. Meanwhile, his spiritual' influence on 
me has increased, and is distinctly recognized. Already 
the promise he made to me in 1890, through the slate 
writing of Sarah De Wolf, is in process of fulfillment: 
" Soul to soul, like the blending of light, will our souls 
mingle." A missionary while here, he is still a mis- 
sionary. His powerful will carries him everywhere, 
and he can avail himself of varied means to make him- 
self felt in Burmah, in America, with his children, and 
with the clergy. 

My mother, who passed on in 1845, even then a fine- 
ly-attuned spirit, comes but little to the earth- plane, 
except by influence. I have seen her form distinctly 
but once, and that was some eight years ago. For six 
years I have often seen her light, and I know it at once. 
The first time, in 1892, being in both mental and phy- 
sical trouble, I begged her to come. A large, oval, 
purple light, deep in the centre and shading orf by im- 
perceptible gradations, came from the left, and gently 
swept my face. She replied to my words by many 



5JU A HAPPY YEAR. 

eager little raps, within my organism. I love to see 
that purple light. It caresses me; it blesses me. It 
takes away every kind of pain. When I see this light 
I feel that it is more closely my mother than if she put 
on an earthly form. It is my mother's glorified form, 
and it looks to me here like a purple light. Three 
times she tried to materialize through mediums, but 
after I came home the last time, I said, "Don't try 
again, dearest mother; there is no need. I know you 
come. Why should you put on an outside form which 
is, after all, not really you, for me to feel with my 
fleshly hands ? " 

My father wrote me last spring through an unknown 
psychic, "The soul needs no tongue, my child." How 
true ! I did not need the gentle reminder. He wrote 
it for those around, who desired to see what would be 
written for me. 

But my space is used up, and I will only add that my 
left eye is less painful, and we hope that its poor little 
iris will learn to adjust itself to its imprisoned state. 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



LETTER FIVE. 

"Enny." 

February 6, 1898. 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light : 

Usually I know the subject of my letter a day or two 
before writing. Not so this time. Various themes 
occurred to me, but none was right till, just as I was 
ready to sit down to my always pleasant task, I knew. 
The object of this letter is to show the power of love 
to restore a disordered spirit. 

One year ago my brother lay dying. His happy soul 
was freed on February 8. He was known here by 



A HAPPY YEAR. 21 

strangers as Elnathan Jtidson; to his intimates and in 
the family, as El; but his baby name in Burmah was 
Enny. The name of Enny had been long disused, and 
well nigh forgotten. The summer before his transition 
he told me that our father and mother had been talking 
to him. Questions elicited the fact that he did not see 
them, nor recognize their voices, but knew it was they, 
and that they said to him: " Papa and mamma love 
Enny dearly. " The use of the baby name proved to 
me that they had indeed been with him. 

An aged Burmese couple, Ko Boke and Mah Boke, 
had loved us dearly in Burmah. I well remember that 
the good old woman was at the jetty to bid us farewell, 
with our favorite cakes, and how she lifted up her voice 
and wailed as she went up from the boat. I saw her in 
Wichita, Kan., when in illness and depression. She 
had been rubbing my feet. Old Ko Boke attended my 
brother closely in his illness, and if I found it necessary 
to do anything he did not like, he said Ko Boke did not 
like it. 

Once when visiting my brother at the hospital, and 
talking to him of mother, he said he remembered well 
how she looked once at dusk, standing at the end of 
the veranda, in a light dress, with her light brown hair, 
looking at him. I said to him : ' ' Yes, my darling ; 
and by-and-by, when you are in spirit-land, mother will 
be standing on the veranda of her beautiful house. She 
will see you coming, and she will hasten down the steps 
and fold her arms about her dear little son, and she will 
lead you up into the house, to live with her in her 
lovely home." A sweet smile came into his face. 

Those who had known my parents intimately said 
this brother had our father's broad laugh, but his smile 
was like that of our mother. Bless their dear hearts ! 
They are all together now. " When shall I their chorus 
join?" The tears come. They say: "Not yet, daughter. 
We still have work for you to do." 



22 A HAPPY YEAR. 

About ten weeks before his transition, the knee of 
the paralyzed side drew spasmodically up opposite his 
chest. It gave him great pain, and I summoned a 
physician. He said it often occurred, and could not be 
helped. After he had left the body, this doctor asked 
if the cords had to be cut to put him into the coffin . 
But my father knew what to do, and impressed me in 
the night how to arrange a pad around the ankle, and 
tapes, and a flat-iron to hang over the foot of the bed. 
The device drew the limb so gradually that it gave him 
no pain, was a perfect success, and we used it till it 
became unnecessary. 

After I made use of this device his confidence in me 
was unbounded. If I proposed anything, his invariable 
answer was: " You know best;" or " Do as you think 
best, dear." 

I was alone with him the last five hours, and every 
time I asked him if he was in pain he always said, " No 
pain, but it is difficult to swallow." Once I said, 
"Will you forgive me, darling, for every sign of im- 
patience?" "Yes, yes," he said; and then lifting his 
dear, dim eyes to my face, he said : ' ' You are very 
dear to me, my sister. " Many times while he drew 
those labored breaths I said : "Abbydoes love Enny 
so much. " 

Our parents bore him away at once, when he ceased 
to breathe, and he did not return to earth for nine days. 
Then he came to me. I saw his dear face. 

The funeral services were when I was alone with his 
form, before the undertaker came with the hearse. I 
was re-arranging the flowers, when an influence took 
me, and with joyful tears and hands raised to heaven I 
summoned all who loved us, and committed his precious 
soul to their tender, watchful care forevermore, in the 
name of the Infinite Love of the universe. He was not 
there, of course. The others came. " All we love and 
all who love us." Oh! how thankful I am daily that 
he could be with me for one year, and that I could in 



A HAPPY YEAR. 23 

some measure atone for those terrible and doleful 
thirty-two years in insane hospitals. 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



LETTER SIX. 



Spirit aid before the Extraction of the 
Cataract. 

February 13, 1898. 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light : 

I would like to tell you how Spiritualism aided me 
before and during the critical operation to which I have 
been subjected. It is useless to deny it; one cannot 
but dread — especially when having once undergone the 
same and suffered at the extraction of the lens — in spite 
of the cocaine so freely applied. The eye is, as we all 
know, exquisitely sensitive, and no doubt the higher 
development which we so gladly seek renders us more 
sensitive. 

I have heard of a little boy who was pitied because 
he had stubbed his toe. ".I'm not hurt," said he, with 
all the advanced thought of a Jin du siecle boy. " My 
little shell of a body may be hurt, but I'm not hurt." 
A good ministerial brother who visited me afterwards 
at the hospital, adverted to this incident, and we laugh- 
ingly concluded that the interior of the eye seems, to 
say the least, nearer the centre of being than an out- 
side shell. 

Well, having made all arrangements, I placed myself 
in bed, for a week's sojourn therein, some two or three 
hours before the arrival of the surgeon — "head inquis- 
itorial functionary," as I sometimes called him — the 
sub-doctors, in solemn row, being his "familiars." 
Some may wonder why I prepared so long beforehand. 



24 A HAPPY YEAR. 

I was guided to do so, as is the case with many of my 
acts in life, for the way was thus opened for spiritual 
manifestations that strengthened me for what was to 
conic. 

There were three who manifested themselves — my 
father, my mother, and my lately-arisen brother. My 
mother's light was almost constant for two or three 
hours, and I wish that I could describe the heavenly 
beauty of the manifestation. Just above me in front 
she brooded over her child, pouring down floods of mag- 
netism. Purple being still her color, there were the 
most exquisite clouds of soft, pinkish purple, that formed 
themselves constantly into a large whirl. This whirl 
was not in stupendous action, as when mighty spirits 
conjoin to build a world, as alluded to on page 128 of 
'■ The Bridge Between Two Worlds." This whirl, con- 
stantly forming, dissolving and re-forming, was my 
mother, existent rather than active, and existing to 
bless. When left alone for a few moments I talked 
with her, and she breathed upon me a mother's love. 

Sometimes she gave way to my father. Years ago 
his color was red, indicating force. Now he comes in 
a great, powerful white light, full of purity, courage, 
and high resolve. He thus let me know that he was 
close at hand. Then this would disappear, and mother 
would resume her tender watch. And once, only once, 
just before the surgeon came, I saw a little upright 
pillar of deep blue. It brightened, till it was a soft, 
light and living blue, and I knew that my brother, who 
one year before was suffering on the earth-plane, had 
now come to bring sweet comfort to the sister who 
always loved him, and will love him forever. He now 
dwells with mother in higher spheres, developing his 
immortal powers; and in ages to come he will be a 
powerful influence to uplift multitudes, especially those 
who suffer in the same way that he suffered so long. 

The aid granted was so effectual that all those pres- 
ent said the removal of the lens was rarely performed 



A HAPPY YEAR. 25 

on so tranquil and quiet a subject. They expressed 
their surprise, for they knew that I was nervous, and 
not over strong. I told 'those sweet nurses much before 
I left the hospital. People cannot know me very long 
without knowing that I am a Spiritualist. 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



LETTER SEVEN. 



Mr. J. O. Barrett and "The Medium of 
the Rockies." 

February 20, 1898. 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light: 

Your issue of February 19th bears upon its title page, 
k ' In Memoriam : Joseph Osgood Barrett, " and an almost 
speaking portrait of his careworn and benign face. My 
first thought was, "Bless him ! He is now an angel, 
but only because he had begun to be an angel while in 
the fleshly body." 

Well do I remember meeting Mr. Barrett in Minne- 
apolis in 1888, and the kind trouble he took to come 
to see me at my rooms, and the wisdom shown in his 
words and in his subsequent letters, warning me of cer- 
tain pitfalls which my enthusiastic acceptance of Spirit- 
ualism had laid for my inexperienced feet. He was in 
line with my father's later caution, "Use your own 
judgment; let reason balance the manifestations." 

Mr. Barrett was the first Spiritualist of eminence, 
culture and breeding that I had met, for this was before 
Bishop A. Beals had come to St. Paul, and two years 
before I attended my first camp meeting. I was just a 
tyro, and attended seances with other investigators. I 
did not accept Spiritualism, dear friends, because of the 
learning and culture that I found at that time; I ac- 



26 A HAPPY YEAR. 

cepted it because it was true. And Mr. Barrett, who 
possessed all the qualities that make men esteemed by 
the best men and women, showed me a purity, a wis- 
dom, and a courage that I have never seen excelled. I 
was also struck by his tender devotion to his delicate 
wife, the wife of his youth. My heart bleeds for her in 
her present grief. Yet a little while, and those who 
love him will rejoin him in a fairer clime than this. 

" Farewell, good man, good angel now. This hand 
Soon, like thine own, shall lose its cunning too; 

Soon shall this soul, like thine, bewildered stand, 
Then leap to thread the free, unfathomed blue." 

I had hoped to meet him again here, but our meeting 
is now postponed to a brighter day, I believe, Mr. 
Editor, that you derive some of your noble qualities 
from the brother of your own father — J. O. Barrett. 

The first book that I read after recovering my sight 
was kindly sent to me by Mr. Newman, of the PJiilo- 
sopJiical Journal, and is entitled "John Brown, the 
Medium of the Rockies." It is a good book to read, 
and to lend to those who will not or cannot buy. No 
one can read the simple, unvarnished account of how 
Mopoloquist prophesied, healed and instructed through 
him, without feeling that it is all true. And truth, 
pure, unadulterated truth, is what the world craves 
from every writer, medium and speaker. No genius, 
no inspiration, no learning, no eloquence, no medium- 
istic power, is worth anything if truth be not there. 

John Brown did not seek to be a medium. The 
spirits found him a fit instrument, and they sought him. 
And if there were any indications that some one tried 
to misuse what came through him, they withdrew the 
power. I will relate an instance, ending on Page 51. 

Mopoloquist often unrolled before him, when asleep, 
what would happen the next day. The pioneers, his 
companions, did everything possible to prevent the ac- 
complishment of the prophecy. But invariably, when 



A HAPPY YEAR. 27 

the hour drew near, they all forgot it, and every word 
and act came out exactly as prophesied. So they 
learned to watch eagerly for his waking, in order to 
learn what was to happen. 

At last one of them, named Timothy Goodale, pro- 
posed to John Brown to tell him alone what was to take 
place, and he would divide with him what he would win 
from the others. Brown refused, and resented the offer. 
The next time, Mopoloquist told Brown to have noth- 
ing to do with Goodale. The next night he looked sad, 
and taking off his hat, took the manuscript from it, but 
could not unroll it. The next night he was sad and 
silent, and could not even take off his hat. The next 
night he stood in silence, and went away with sorrow 
and regret. Since then he has visited Brown only at 
long intervals, ' ' being apparently under the restraint 
of some one superior to himself." 

Do any of my readers know of a man named John 
Brown who is bad ? I know of three, and they are all 
good men and true. There was Dr. John Brown of 
Edinboro', who wrote " Rab and His Friends," and other 
works, showing a refined nature and humane heart; 
there was John Brown of Harper's Ferry, the old hero, 
' ! who made the gallows holy when he perished by the 
cord;" and here is this noble "Medium of the Rock- 
ies," still living in California, and revered by all who 
know him. The value of the book is enhanced by the 
admirable introduction by Prof. J. S. Loveland. 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



&8 A HAPPY YEAR. 

LETTER EIGHT. 

The " Filth and Fraud " Accusation. 

February 27, 1898. 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light: 

I have an experience to relate which is, alas ! but too 
common to all Spiritualists who come in contact with 
the church. 

There is a church in New York called the Adoniram 
Judson Memorial Church. The humane labors con- 
nected with it go much further than with ordinary 
churches. There are the fresh air home for children in 
the country, the Orphans' Home adjoining the church, 
the dispensary where the poor are treated without 
charge, the kindergarten, the free ice water in summer, 
and many other similar adjuncts to his work of love. 
The words of the preacher have great weight, because 
his life is well known to be in accord with the kindness 
he preaches. 

Circumstances had prevented me from ever attending 
the services at this memorial church, for when in New 
York for a Sunday I was either speaking myself, or con- 
fined in the hospital. But the first Sunday of the new 
year, remembering the kind visit of the preacher to me 
when ill, I was glad to feel well enough to go over from 
Arlington to attend his church. The text was: "Take 
heed that ye despise none of these little ones, for in 
heaven their angels do always behold the face of our 
Father in heaven." It was a beautiful sermon, and 
tenderly did he inculcate our duty, not only to children, 
but to all who are incapacitated in any way from stand- 
ing on a par with their fellows. When he came to the 
reason assigned, he said he thought only Jesus could 
have thought of such a reason — that their angels behold 
God's face. A worldly man might say we had better 



A HAPPY YEAR. 29 

be good to little ones because by and by we shall be old 
and they will be strong - , and can injure us. He then 
went on to say that though many of his hearers would 
not agree with him, he upheld the literal truth of the 
text, because, said he, everybody has a guardian angel. 
" You may not like this notion, " he said, " because you 
revolt from the saint-worship of the Roman Catholic 
church, and because you are disgusted with the fraud 
and the filth of Spiritualism." 

These words gave me great pain. In my father's 
Memorial Church, and I sitting there ! Later, I took 
occasion to write to the preacher that it was just as un- 
reasonable to characterize Spiritualism as filthy and 
fraudful, as to say that Christianity is treacherous and 
murderous, because Judas and Guiteau professed to 
be followers of Christ. 

But Christian ministers (except the most ignorant 
among them) are not opposed to Spiritualism on account 
of filth and fraud. They well know that the bravest, 
truest and most enlightened persons in the community 
have found out that Spiritualism is true. That is not 
their real reason for opposing it, though they proclaim 
this as the reason, in order to impose on the ignorant, 
and in order to daunt those who hear them who are in- 
vestigating it. 

The real reason why ministers and church leaders 
hate Spiritualism is because they are afraid of it. They 
know perfectly well that they cannot control the think- 
ing of those who have found out that decarnate spirits 
can inspire American mediums in this decade, just as 
truly as decarnate spirits used to inspire Jews two 
thousand to four thousand years ago; and it is ten to 
one that these modern spirits are broader, more scien- 
tific, and quite as spiritual as those of long ago. 

They abhor Spiritualism because they cannot pen us up 
by the words of the Hebrew Bible, and are losing their 
power to rule the minds of men. They will use every 
means to retain this power, and the contest will be long 
and hard. 



30 A HAPPY YEAR. 

As to fraud and filth, we know well enough that they 
characterize some of the hangers-on, and some mediums 
who are controlled by vicious spirits; but this will dim- 
inish, and surely it cannot be deprecated by our church 
friends nearly so much as by the great mass of Spirit- 
ualists. 

There is a very simple way to exclude all filth and 
fraud from spiritual manifestations; a way that I have 
practiced for several years; but as I have already used 
up the space accorded to me in your valuable columns, 
I will, with your permission, Mr. Editor, give an ac- 
count of this effectual method in a subsequent letter. 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



LETTER NINE. 



Moral Purity essential to good 
Mediumship. 

March 6, 1898. 

To the Editor of The Banner of Light: 

It gives a true lover of Spiritualism great pain to 
hear this constant cry of fraud by its opponents; and 
when to the disgraceful word ot fraud is added the 
still more opprobrious term of filth, it requires some 
nerve to still say unflinchingly in the face of those who 
revile the name, " Yes, I am a Spiritualist." 

We who have already begun to drink of the pure 
water flowing down to us from celestial regions, who 
have found in spirit communion strength for our daily 
needs, and who anticipate the dissolution of the fleshly 
body with joy unspeakable and full of glory, are not 
dismayed by these epithets, flung out by those who are 
either ignorant of Spiritualism, or, knowing something 
of its value, yet dread what will inevitably cause " the 



A HAPPY YEAR. 31 

surrender of Orthodoxy. " But many seekers are not 
as far along, and we should by all means take steps to 
render such accusations impossible, or their falsity 
apparent to the most cursory glance. Besides, pos- 
sessing as we do the truth that can alone uplift 
mankind and prepare it for the heaven beyond by mak- 
ing a heaven of the life here, we owe it to our own self 
respect to quickly and wisely present our views in a 
way to win the confidence and the esteem of the world 
at large. 

One of the most pernicious doctrines that has ever 
been sustained by Spiritualists is that the moral char- 
acter of the medium is of no consequence. I have 
heard that constantly sustained by Spiritualists of long 
standing during the last ten years, and I never heard 
it without dissenting from it in my own soul ; and 
many have thrown stumbling-blocks in my way in many 
places because I have contended, both in speaking and 
in writing, for making a pure, moral character more 
important than mediumship. This view is fully brought 
out in chapters 3, 4, 5 and 18 of " The Bridge Between 
Two Worlds," written in 1894, and it is in fact the 
keynote to the whole work. My angelic helpers earn- 
estly desire that mediums in general should read and 
act upon their teachings as given there. But alas! 
many mediums dread these doctrines because their 
adoption would anger their controls, and cause their 
withdrawal and the consequent withdrawal of the 
money these controls help them to make. If such 
mediums would make the development of their own 
souls their first object, this effort would at once open 
the door to a high order of spirits; and, as they have 
real mediumistic power, this power would be utilized 
by these new controls, and they would find a beauty 
and a glory in their work that is beyond their present 
power to conceive. But as long as many believers per- 
sist in the claim that character is of no consequence to 
a medium, we cannot be surprised that many sensi- 



o - 2 A HAPPY YEAR. 

tives, whose susceptibility to spirit control proves cer- 
tain yielding- strands in their mental make-up, should 
say the same, to the great delight of certain low spirits 
who believe it, too, and are glad to retain the power 
they have so long held. 

Alas! my space is nearly all gone, and I have but 
just begun. How shall we, who are not acting mediums, 
aid to develop a pure mediumship, and thus conquer 
the accusations of filth and fraud ? In the first place 
let us seek communications only from high and noble 
spirits, whose teachings can ennoble and purify our 
own characters, opening the door to undeveloped spirits 
only with a view to aiding them by our own moral 
strength. And, in the second place, let us have no 
private sittings, attend no seances, and patronize no 
public test mediums unless we are sure that these me- 
diums make their own personal purity and truth their 
first object in life, thus making it possible for exalted 
spirits to worthily communicate with mortals through 
them. We have many such mediums in our ranks, and 
only such should be patronized, both in public and in 
private. A different sort of medium should be dis- 
countenanced, and this is especially necessary because 
one with a low control (because he does not insist on a 
higher one) can readily amuse a crowd of outsiders and 
fun-seekers in a way that a person of high aspirations 
and refined manners cannot do. 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



A HAPPY YEAR. 33 

LETTER TEN. 

Motives for Seeking Mediumship. 

March 13, 1898. 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light : 

I am in frequent receipt of letters from persons who 
desire to become mediums, and ask my assistance to 
that end. A late one was from a settled pastor of a 
church, who wishes to speak under inspiration. An- 
other was from a person who wants mediumship in 
order to make money, and who offered me a large per 
cent, of her first winnings if I would aid her to this 
method of making a handsome living. 

To the minister I wrote a letter full of caution, 
reminding him of the countless numbers of undevel- 
oped spirits close to the earth plane ; but, if his leading 
motive was to get an inspiration to help to uplift and 
spiritualize mankind, I bade him God-speed. Later he 
sent for " The Bridge Between Two Worlds," and with 
the aid of "good, pure, true, loving, wise and strong 
spirits," he will doubtless do great good in his day and 
generation. 

As to the other seeker for mediumship, I advised her 
to let it alone, because her motive in acquiring it 
seemed to be such as would open the door of her inner 
being to a dangerous class of spirits. I asked her to 
try to make money in some other way, and meanwhile 
to try to develop her soul to beauty, truth, and good- 
ness, by her every word, thought and action. Later, 
when her aims had become highly aspirational, if she 
had mediumistic power, noble spirits would adopt her 
for their own, and she would be a medium between 
earth and heaven for good spirits not only here, but 
after she had left the fleshly body. I did not hear from 
this dear soul again. May highest heaven aid her, and 



34 A HAPPY YEAR. 

every one who aspires to be the mouthpiece of the 
angel world ! 

Mediumship is the most sacred gift that has ever 
been given to mortals. The Nazarene, if the story be 
true, felt it to be so. When a powerful decarnate spirit 
sought to take control of him by using his gifts to 
worldly uses, he combated him. This spirit told him 
to appease his hunger by turning stones into bread, 
bade him tempt angel aid by leaping from the topmost 
spire of the temple, and capped the climax by telling 
him he would make him ruler of the known world if he 
would acknowledge his mastership by bowing down 
and worshiping him. 

To these impure suggestions the gifted Nazarene 
turned a deaf ear, and resolved then and there to use 
his rare powers to relieve human suffering and to aid 
to spiritualize the race. Those who have read "Why 
She Became a Spiritualist," may remember that this 
subject is quite fully treated in the chapter entitled, 
" The Spiritualism of Jesus. " That, and the preceding 
one, entitled, "What Jesus really Taught," were writ- 
en in Minneapolis in 1891, under the inspiration of 
Henry Ward Beecher, though the writer did not dream 
at that time that she was a medium of any phase. 

Whether the account of Jesus be historically true or 
not, does not matter. It is no less a sublime lesson for 
the guidance of every incarnate soul in the nineteenth 
century who aspires to be a medium between souls in 
the physical and the more purely spiritual world, bet- 
ween this shadow life and the real and vivid life on 
the other side of the thin veil. 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



A HAPPY YEAR. 35 

LETTER ELEVEN. 

Home Treatment for the Insane. 

March 20, 1898. 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light: 

As some persons having friends whose intellects are 
disordered have written to me inquiring for more par- 
ticulars regarding the work done for my brother 
through me by good decarnate spirits, so that they may 
profit by my experience, I feel impelled to make this 
work the subject of the present letter. 

Those who care for insane persons, as for other sick 
people, should, so far as possible, be near of kin, and 
those who love them truly and deeply. Only such could 
have the patience requisite for a work like this. If out- 
siders are employed, as some cases would require, they 
should be under the close and personal supervision of 
those who love the patient the most dearly. It is injuri- 
ous, though sometimes necessary, for the patient to be 
shut up with those similarly afflicted. Mental disease, 
like some physical diseases, is catching. And we who 
are enlightened by Spiritualism shudder to think of the 
thousands of undeveloped and malign spirits who brood 
over insane hospitals, and combine to ' ' make the last 
state of that man even worse than the first." 

Some of the best hospitals in Europe place the pa- 
tients separately, one insane person being boarded in a 
wholly sane family. This is admirable, when practica- 
ble, and we hope this method will become more preva- 
lent in the United States. 

When persons are dangerously and violently insane, 
they can be placed in a padded room at home, or fast- 
ened to a bedstead by long, smooth straps around the 
wrists and ankles, which give ample play to the limbs, 
and yet prevent the sufferer from injuring others or 



36 A HAPPY YEAR. 

himself. It should be remembered that some who were 
gentle on first going to a hospital, become violently in- 
sane and dangerous, because they find that they cannot 
get away, cannot see those they love, and come to feel 
that they have deserted them. This was the case with 
my poor brother. 

Before confinement, and yet insane, he spent his time 
in writing poems and essays on purity, and in taking 
long walks. For awhile at the hospital he continued to 
write, and was buoyed up by the hope of being released 
when his surgeon brother had a furlough from the war. 
He had the furlough, visited him, and of course (though 
with a breaking heart) had to leave him there. Months 
passed on, and the gentle, scholarly recluse became, 
through despair, violently insane. This continued for 
over two years, and then, with conquered will, he be- 
came quiet, and sank into the condition that continued for 
thirty years, until I was allowed to take the poor sufferer 
to my home and give him the sweetness of home life for 
one sad year. I well know, and he has assured me of 
the same from the spirit side of life, that if he had been 
treated as I treated him, from the beginning of his dis- 
eased condition, his life would not have been a wasted 
and an agonized one. 

I have a minute account in writing of those first 
months of confinement. A devoted friend went to the 
hospital every week or two, and wrote long letters de- 
tailing his condition, whether he saw him or not. I 
kept those letters, but could never bear to read them 
again after the first time, until the transition of my 
idolized brother from what was indeed " a vale of tears " 
for him, to the exquisite joys and reunions of the spirit- 
land. No, no; whatever be the disease, typhoid fever, 
smallpox, insanity, Bright's disease, whatever it be, 
keep your dear one at home, and cared for by those who 
love him best, if possible. 

I know of a family of which the father became vio- 
lently and incurably insane. The mother said he should 



A HAPPY YEAR. 37 

never go to a hospital. They built a room with wooden 
walls four inches thick, and carefully padded. He lived 
seventeen years, and though his reason was never re- 
stored on the earth-plane, yet think of the joy and grati- 
tude of that liberated soul when he welcomes by and by 
that wife and those children who ministered to him in 
his sore need to his home in the spirit-land. 

By the way, how beautiful it was in Fannie Allyn to 
speak so tenderly and effectually to the female prison- 
ers in the jail of St. Louis! My arisen brother greets 
her, and thanks her through me for that noble day's 
work. 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



LETTER TWELVE. 



The Golden Jubilee of Modern Spirit- 
ualism. 

March 27, 1898 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light : 

The eyes of the Spiritualists of the world are turned 
about this time to the little village of Hydesville, N.Y., 
because there a decarnate spirit ' ' Made the rap heard 
round the world. " Taking place at a definite house, 
and the date, March 31, 1848, being an established fact, 
occurring near the city of Rochester, in the heart of 
American civilization, and soon heralded far and wide 
by the press, these well- attested signals from the spirit 
side of life may well be taken as an objective point, like 
Mohammed's flight from Mecca, or the alleged birth of 
the Xazarene. But sometime before this date do well 
attested facts bear witness that the organized forces of 
the higher spirit regions had opened the door between 
their realms and ours in many different places. Their 
efforts were especially directed to the United States, 



38 A HAPPY YEAR. 

because in a republic whose constitution makes an im- 
passible chasm between Church and State, there was 
less likelihood that civil authority would crush their 
efforts, as used to be done in more tyrannical and super- 
stitious times and countries. 

In 1843 high spirits had spoken and written through 
Andrew Jackson Davis, and had begun through him a 
series of memorable books. And more than ten years 
before that, John Brown, a lad among the Rocky Moun- 
tains, was convincing his associates, by his constantly- 
fulfilled prophecies, that he was the mouth-piece of 
decarnate spirits. Brown was born in 1817, he was 
seven when the high souled Mopoloquist took him for 
his medium, and before he was twenty he was already 
proving the truth of spirit-return. 

John Brown's work was confined for many years to 
the far West, and was but little known. Davis's mar- 
velous and inspiring communications appealed to the 
learned, the scientific, and the loftily spiritual; but the 
raps made by the murdered pedlar through the little 
Fox girls could be heard by everybody. Those who 
took the pains to make a personal investigation were 
forced to admit that there was " something in it;" and 
though the horrified and suspicious clergy said this 
something or somebody was Satan himself, the thing 
could not be hushed. "And still the wonder grew. " 

For the past seven years we have wondered how it 
was that this newly-fledged marvel received the name 
of Spiritualism. Who, in the name of diction, bestowed 
this name so singularly inappropriate to the thing sig- 
nified? Had they called it Spiritism, no more,' no less, 
the name would have been just. The raps proved the 
existence of spirits without a fleshly body. The poor 
pedlar, so foully murdered, proved himself a genuine 
spirit. He had no fleshly body, but he could rap out 
his thoughts and prove his individual intelligence. 

Of Spiritualism proper, of its beauty and its glory, it 
seems probable that only one of the Fox girls had much 



A HAPPY YEAR. 39 

conception while a dweller on the planet. We allude, 
of course, to the noble, self-respecting , and self- con- 
trolled Leah. 

Spiritism is one thing, Spiritualism is another. The 
first is derived from the word spirit; the second, from 
the adjective spiritual. Spiritism lays the foundation; 
Spiritualism is the magnificent, yet never to be com- 
pleted, edifice. Spiritism is the seed planted in the 
doubtful yet seeking heart ; Spiritualism is the beauti- 
ful tree with branches ever dropping balm on im- 
prisoned souls, and yet ever stretching and growing 
toward the infinite. 

We thank with unspeakable joy those glorious im- 
mortals who banded .together to bring the certainty of 
spirit-existence to earth-bound souls, and still more for 
the sweet fruitage and the magnificent promise of the 
fairest queen that ever reigned over the human intellect 
and the human heart — pure, ever-growing Spiritualism ! 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



LETTER THIRTEEN 



The Exteriorization of the Motor Forces 

in Man. 

April 4, 1898. 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light: 

In your issue of March 12 is an article entitled " The 
Exteriorization of the Motor Forces of Man," which 
seems to me so valuable that it is worth the careful con- 
sideration of every Spiritualist. The above words are 
the title of a recent work by M. de Rochas. A previous 
work by him recorded a series of experiments proving 
that under certain conditions the sensibility is removed 
beyond the physical body, while the present one shows 
experimentally that the human spirit, while still em- 



40 A HAPPY YEAR. 

bodied in fleshly form, ean move objects more or less 
remote that are not reached by the body proper. His 
next work will be on "The Phantoms of the Living," 
and we hope that he will then carry all these premises 
to their legitimate conclusion, and give one to the world 
to be called " The Phantoms of the Dead." 

Though we are delighted that so careful, truthful, 
and scientific a man as M. de Rochas is doing this 
needed and effectual work, the fact that we, still in the 
form, can and do move tables, produce raps, and even 
slate writing, without the intervention of disembodied 
spirits, is known to many thinking Spiritualists. . In 
fact, how could it be otherwise ? for we are to-day 
spirits just as truly as when we become disembodied. 
Some of us can do these things, many decarnate spirits 
can do them. And if we want on any occasion only 
disembodied spirits to do them, it is of the first, the 
last, and the always paramount consequence, that not 
only every medium, but each and every sitter as well, 
should when sitting become perfectly passive mentally. 
If one individual in the sitting allows his own opinions 
or his own will to be active on any of the subjects con- 
nected with the desired communications from the other 
side of life, then it is quite possible that his mental at- 
titude takes control of the manifestation, and prevents 
the anxious disembodied friend from expressing himself 
through the raps, the table movements, the slate writing, 
or whatever phase of expression it may be. 

Negative persons, with weak wills, are easily used by 
spirits, either in the body or out of the body; but, in 
our opinion, the best results are obtained in the long 
run through individuals who are positive by nature, but 
who have learned how to make themselves perfectly pas- 
sive when they choose to do so. This subject, vitally 
important to all who seek to communicate with those 
who have left the physical body, is, of course, fully 
treated in " The Bridge Between Two Worlds." 

In 1H ( .)1 , while speaking in Wisconsin, a sincere Spirit- 



A HAPPY YEAR. 41 

ualist invited me to a sitting at his house. He had 
made the table himself, and he and his wife had sat at 
it for years and years, opposite each other at the ends. 
On this occasion I sat on one side, and another person 
opposite me. This evening the answer to every ques- 
tion was in accord with the positive opinion of this 
good, sincere Spiritualist. The answers regarding my 
own affairs, and those of the family where I was stay- 
ing, often contradicted the truth, where the truth was 
unknown to him. Unconsciously to himself, he made 
the movements and the raps, and the disembodied 
friends could not express themselves. This good man 
had not learned to become passive when sitting at his 
table. 

In Cincinnati, in 1894, I stepped into a jewelry store. 
The proprietor was a Secularist. The conversation 
turning upon Spiritualism, he said he could produce slate 
writing, and " spirits " would not do it at all. We took 
a clean slate, and laid it face down on the glass counter 
He put his hand on it, and I put my hand on it. The 
writing came 'in a minute. I heard the writing going 
on, and I read it afterward. It was on some every day 
topic. In this case it was written by a spirit, but pro- 
bably the spirit was still embodied. 

In 1895, in the East, I saw much of a woman through 
whom loud raps came. She would hold a folded news- 
paper or some large object of light weight in one hand, 
stretching the arm out, and answers to questions came 
by loud raps. At every rap her arm quivered slightly. 
She would not do it in the presence of persons whom 
she considered learned or scientific, but she did it will- 
ingly for others. She well knew that it came from her- 
self in some way. The answer always accorded with 
what she thought might be the case, but were untrue 
as often as not. As the woman proved herself at other 
times untruthful, slanderous and malicious, I had no 
use for her gift. But the credulous thought her a won- 
der ul rapping medium. 



42 A HAPPY YEAR. 

These arc only three instances, out of perhaps fifty, 
that have come under my own observation, that accord 
with the deductions from the investigations of M. de 
Rochas. These deductions are legitimate, but they do 
not invalidate the bona fide communications that come 
daily from disembodied spirits through honest, high- 
minded mediums, who understand themselves, and 
whose spiritual gifts and graces have enabled good 
spirits to reach mortals through their organisms. 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



LETTER FOURTEEN. 



My Upholstered Chair. 

April 10, 1898. 

To the Editor of The Banner of Light : 

In my sequestered, quiet, and seemingly lonely life, 
I have time to think, especially at the evening hour. 
The days are crowded with work of various kinds; by 
lamplight there are letters to be written; but when the 
evening begins to gather, before I light my lamp, is the 
the time to sit and rest, and receive impressions from 
the immortal helpers. Some might think it strange, 
but one old chair is the dearest to me. Sitting in it in 
Minneapolis, I once found myself in my father's arms, 
and we held tender converse together. In the same 
chair I wrote, under a powerful impulse, the letter read 
in Maiden, Mass., at the centennial of his birthday. 
While in it, came the loud raps that bespoke his near- 
ness to me. While in the same chair, I was about to 
read a newspaper, when he made me rise and hasten to 
an inner room. My removal was followed by two loud 
reports. A small, improvised cannon across the street 
exploded, and a jagged piece of iron, one inch by five 



A HAPPY YEAR. 43 

or six inches, tore through the plate-glass window, 
struck the opposite corner of the room, and fell in the 
third corner. Every object in the room was powdered 
with fine glass. Had I remained in my chair, I should have 
been frightfully injured, and perhaps killed. If I had 
been reading, the piece of iron would have struck my 
head; if leaning back, it would have torn through my 
jaw. This was July 4, 1889. 

While sitting in this chair on Thanksgiving Day, 
1888, in bright daylight, I saw my father's etherealized 
form. I think he was aided to make this presentation 
by the magnetic force proceeding from a friend, now 
residing, I think, in Pasadena, Cal. He had dined with 
me that day. About three o'clock we were each sitting 
by a window, facing each other. I was sleepy, and my 
feet were cold. I opened my eyes, but felt too sluggish 
to move. In the little camp-chair which I carried to 
Europe with me, and used in many a memorable place, 
sat my Grandmother Judson. I never saw her in earth 
life. No doubt her tremendous will force, inherited by 
her missionary son, aided him to etherealize. Soon a 
great force bowed my head into my lap. I did not like 
it, and moaned, and did wish my friend would raise my 
head. When I could raise it, there stood my father in 
front of the lounge. I was too happy to move or speak. 
He looked solid at first, then gradually became trans- 
parent, so that I saw the lounge behind him, and then 
he faded wholly away. 

This dear chair is always in my home, and I think it 
would be nice to pass out of the fleshly tenement while 
sitting in it. What would I care for Napoleon's throne 
chair at Versailles, or for the most superb chair in the 
possession of American multi-millionaires, in compari- 
son with this worn, often re-covered, old, upholstered 
chair? 

Here I sit and wonder why in the world other people 
cannot be as happy as I am. I get so many sad letters 
from different persons. Some are mediums, who are 
obsessed by unworthy spirits. Some are Spiritualists — 



44 A HAPPY YEAR. 

or say they are — and yet they are afraid to die. That 
does seem very strange indeed. Some want to develop 
inspirational speaking, but they cannot, because their 
husband or their wife persists in going on living on the 
earth plane. Some are dreadfully sad because they 
have no soul- mate. And some say that if Kate Field 
can come to Lilian Whiting, why can't their friends 
come to them? 

I fully intended to write to-day on some of the things 

I wrote to these sad persons, thinking to perhaps aid 
some readers who have similar troubles, but the pencil 
ran away with me, and the letter has turned out a dif- 
ferent one from what I anticipated. Like poor Pilate, 
in regard to the prisoner who was too great for him — 

II What I have written, I have written." 

Yours for humanity and spirituality. 



LETTER FIFTEEN. 

Reasons for Being Happy. 

April 17, 1898. 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light : 

In my last, allusion was made to some of the sad 
persons that write to me, and the causes of their sad- 
ness. I also said that I was happy, and wondered 
why every one could not be the same. Even when in 
fear of becoming totally blind, though I of course felt 
anxiety on that point, I was, as now, always conscious 
of a deep, underlying confidence and calm that nothing 
can disturb or remove. So, thinking of other persons 
and their needs, I will try to tell the ground on which 
I rest. 

While under the bane of the old theology I was never 
at rest. The doctrine that God 

" Sent one to heaven, and ten to hell, 

All for his own glory. 

And not for any good or ill 

They did before thee," 



A HAPPY YEAR. 45 

was ample proof that there was a screw loose in the 
underpinning" of the universe. The only hope from 
this deviltry (pardon the word, but it is appropriate, ) 
was in accepting a Saviour from the wrath to come, of 
whom an enormous majority of the human race had 
never heard. As Dr. Shedd used to say (quoted by 
my brother Elnathan after he came to live with me), 
' ' We are predestinated to be saved, in order that we 
may be more effectually saved; and we are predes- 
tinated to be damned, in order that we may be more 
effectually damned. " To be saved with a very small 
minority was unspeakably selfish, and to be in the hands 
of an omnipotent Deity who could treat his own crea- 
tion thus was appalling. 

No wonder we used to sing, 

" On Christ, the solid rock, I stand, 
All other ground is sinking sand." 

The second line was true enough, in such a theology. 
For, if the " other ground " was such a God, we might 
well call it " sinking sand," and worse. 

After such a pandemonium of horrors, to be brought 
into the clear light of the new day is enough in itself 
alone to make one happy every day of a life, were it as 
long as the storied life of Methuselah. 

Of my sixty- two years of conscious identity, I have 
known for some ten of them that, instead of sinking- 
sand and slippery ice placed under our trembling feet 
by an omnipotent and omniscient fiend, wc have a solid 
ground on which we can confidingly and rejoicingly 
rest, and this ground is the constitution of the universe 
itself. 

Love, ever working slowly, slowly, from low to a 
little higher, is the law of this universe, and results 
in the improved condition of those who desire to ad- 
vance from spiritual sphere to spiritual sphere. We 
may have things to make us unhappy here. If so, there 
is a cause for this condition. This cause may be our 
own acts, the acts of other persons, or the acts of our 



46 A HAPPY YEAR. 

ancestors. A physical and spiritual law that forever 
prevails is that causes produce effects. If discomfort 
results, instead of mourning that it is so, let us rather 
rejoice that law prevails. For, if the legitimate effect 
did not follow the cause, there would indeed, be a fatal 
screw loose, and we should be living in a lawless uni- 
verse. 

There is a book called " The Reign of Law." The 
source, the origin of this law, no finite being may 
claim to know. We may say it is a personal deity 
with some, an infinite personality with others, and 
with a great English thinker, a power that works for 
righteousness. We may theorize as we please, as to 
the source thereof. The main thing for us to do, to- 
day, to-morrow, and forever, is to note the bearings of 
universal law in the way things go on, and to learn 
what causes produce certain effects in our own imme- 
diate sphere of action and observation; and, as fast as 
we learn these lessons, to adapt our own thoughts, 
wishes, wills, and acts to these manifestations of law. 

Resting on this, we are happy, and cannot help being 
happy. We may even be as happy as was Ralph Waldo 
Emerson. Some one said to him: "Mr. Emerson, 
they say the world is coming to an end." "Very well," 
he said, "I can do without it." Though the planet 
itself come to an end, the soul, a living and enduring 
entity, will go on in spiritual spheres ; and it will rise 
to higher states as it notes the laws that govern pro- 
gress in each successive state, and regulates itself in 
accordance with these laws. 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



A HAPPY YEAR. 47 

LETTER SIXTEEN. 

Kate Field and Lilian Whiting. 

April 24, 1898. 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light: 

My heart goes out in sympathy to many who write to 
me in the hope that I or my spirit helpers can aid 
them. Some live in remote places, where they can 
reach no medium, and they say, " If your spirit friends 
can come to you, why cannot mine come to me ? " or, 
' ' "Why cannot my loved ones reach me as Kate Field 
can reach Lillian Whiting ? " The question is a perti- 
nent one; and if, though Spiritualists, our own on the 
other side of life do not come en rapport with us, it be- 
comes us to ask the reason, not in a complaining spirit, 
but rather to seek to remove the cause after it has been 
ascertained. 

With regard to Miss Whiting and Miss Field, one can 
find sufficient cause in the nature and the course of life 
of each why their souls can still touch each other con- 
sciously, though one be decarnate and the other still 
incarnate. 

Miss Field had an intrepid nature, one that could 
penetrate new scenes and new lines of thought, find 
herself at home in them, and capable of being an actor 
therein. For instance, when the telephone was to be 
introduced into England, and exhibited before the 
Queen, in January, 1878, she was a leading spirit in the 
whole affair; and not only did much toward the effect 
of the demonstration, but sent telegrams to many news- 
papers on both sides of the Atlantic, and wrote notices 
for the Times, the Telegraphy and the Daily iVezvs, so 
that the next day all London was informed of the par- 
ticulars. This is only one event in her daily public 
life. 

W 7 hen such a woman as this found herself freed from 
the fleshly body, and her spiritual form in vibration 



48 A HAPPY YEAR. 

with the ethereal forces of the other side of life, the 
same intrepidity, intelligence and push which character- 
ized her here, enabled her to put herself in touch with 
ways and means, and to impress with her personality 
her dear and life-long friend who is still bound to ter- 
restrial conditions. 

As to Miss Whiting, she forms a fitting counterpart in 
this wonderful duet. More spiritual, with a soul more 
finely attuned to the invisible, with less dash, and more 
conservative than her friend, she is just the one for 
Kate Field to reach. Besides, the two loved each other 
dearly ; both longed to know the secrets of disembodied 
life, and each had promised to manifest to the other, 
whichever passed the change the first. 

I saw these two gifted women at the World's Psychi- 
cal Congress in Chicago, in 1893. Miss Lilian Whiting 
had prepared an essay entitled "And That Which is to 
Come." It was published in full by the Religio-Philo- 
sopliical Journal, and is an interesting example of spir- 
itual growth As in all her later writings, as well as in 
the one soon to appear, she seeks to combine Biblical 
teachings and faith in the divine mission of Christ with 
the fact of spirit intercourse, and presents a noble pic- 
ture of the coming spiritual development of the human 
race. 

But Miss Whiting did not read the essay herself. She 
deputed her friend, Kate Field, to read it for her. So 
we had these pure, spiritual gems presented to the Con- 
gress through the clear, incisive tones and the bright, 
graceful personality of a woman who was at home on 
any rostrum in the world. 

Beside the personal character of these two women, 
there is yet another reason why "Kate Field can come 
to Lilian Whiting. " Whatever the latter lady knows, 
or learns, she gives to the world in clear, attractive 
newspaper articles and books. The Congress of Angels, 
who know what they are about better than short-sighted 
mortals, can use her as an instrument to convey truth 
to the world, and she is their honored instrument. 



A HAPPY YEAR. 49 

Their delegates aided her brilliant friend to come to 
her in Europe, and subsequently through Mrs. Piper, 
not so much to gratify her, and confirm her intuition of 
immortality, but to reach the reading world through her. 

So, dear, lonely and seeking friends, let us give out 
freely to all we meet the sweet water that refreshes our 
own soul, and ever remember that the more freely we 
give it out to others, the more surely will it become to 
us " a well of water, springing up into everlasting life." 

Perhaps you cannot write a newspaper letter; but 
you can tell your neighbor how happy Spiritualism 
makes you. Perhaps you cannot now write a book ; but 
you can be so gentle, helpful and cheerful to those with 
whom you dwell, that they will quietly, if not aloud, 
bless the Spiritualism which has wrought so sweet a 
fruit through you, its professor and its possessor. The* 
freedom with which we give will increase our own re- 
ceptivity, while what we hoard within our own souls 
shrinks away, and loses its power to bless. The higher 
angels, especially, aid those through whom they can 
reach others. 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



LETTER SEVENTEEN. 

Our State After Death Conditioned 

By Our Life Here. 

May 1, 1898. 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light: 

A recent letter from me gave the solid ground of 
mental and spiritual security as being the constitution 
of the universe itself, and the knowledge through ob- 
servation that all proceeds by law, the moving power 
being an all-pervading beneficence that will produce in 
the long run the progression of each individualized soul. 

While we can rest unwaveringly on these grounds, it 
is not in human nature not to enquire as to the actual 



< r >0 A HAPPY YEAR. 

home where we shall dwell after being disembodied. 
Now we realize that we are on terra firma, and we do 
not fear as to our physical foundation. But, may we 
hope for the same reality, the same support, in short 
the same actual consciousness of locality, after passing- 
out of the fleshly body ? 

Most assuredly we can ; and I freely confess that if 
this were not clearly settled in my own mind by my 
immortal helpers, I could not be so fully sustained as I 
now am. It is in order to communicate this knowledge, 
so satisfying because so accordant with nature, that the 
present letter is written. 

At the present date, nearly a billion and a half of per- 
sons are dwelling on the surface of the planet, and a 
large number of them pass out of the body every mo- 
ment of time. The question is, Where do they go to ? 
It is not enough to say that they are souls, and can 
therefore go anywhere. In fact, that statement is not 
true, for it at once puts the disembodied beyond the 
laws of nature. 

On leaving the fleshly body behind us, or rather be- 
low us, our soul will still express itself through a natural 
body, which is as real as the one of flesh. All that is 
not soul is matter of some sort; and what is called the 
spiritual body is as truly matter, or material, as the one 
of flesh; though it is matter that cannot be perceived by 
the physical senses, and is ethereal enough to respond 
to the vastly quicker vibrations that belong to a more 
spiritual existence. 

Those who have become spiritualized enough while 
here to use the spirit-body will rise beyond the atmos- 
phere and find their congenial home beyond it. But 
such can, when they wish to reach their dear ones on 
the planet directly, clothe their ethereal form with mat- 
ter dense enough to walk the earth " and works of love 
fulfil." This is the way my father works on the earth. 
But my mother, being different, comes much less to the 
earth-plane, and does her work here more by influence 
than by actual presence. 



A HAPPY YEAR. 51 

But the majority of those who leave the fleshly body 
at every moment of time are unable to use their spir- 
itual body, which does not cohere definitely, nor respond 
to their efforts of will to use it, until a later period, So, 
as they must do something - , they build up a form mate- 
rial enough to use, and linger on the planet until they 
have learned to do better. 

Some of these haunt the houses where they dwelt be- 
fore, some hunt up sensitives whose bodies they can use, 
and for this purpose frequent hospitals for the insane, 
large crowds of people, promiscuous circles, and even 
animals, through whose bodies they can express corpo- 
really what they feel. Of course, it is the persons 
whose affections are with earthly scenes and passions, 
who are also sensitive to extraneous influences whom 
they seek the most ardently, and to whom they adhere 
with the most tenacity. But persons who are self-cen- 
tered, and who seek to become more spiritual, for spirit- 
uality's own sake, need not fear them. They can even 
welcome their approach, because angels can reach these 
earth-bound souls through the words and kindly 
thoughts of such persons. 

So, dear reader, you and I have quite enough to do : 
first. to self-center and spiritualize ourselves; and, sec- 
ond, to aid all about us to do the same. In this way 
will the throng that crowd yearly out of the body in an 
unspiritualized condition be diminished. And there is 
no reason for discouragement, for we are responsible 
only for what we can do ourselves. Besides, we can go 
on in this magnificent work after we pass out of the 
body, just as my father is now doing, and as I expect to 
do under his direction after passing the change mis- 
called death. 

But I have scarcely begun to answer the query pro- 
posed at the beginning of this letter, and shall have to 
go on in a subsequent one to show the location of the 
spirit world, and the security afforded by its being 
in exact accord with modern astrono mical science. 
"Whatever is true is rational." 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



5*-^ A HAPPY YEAR. 



LETTER EIGHTEEN. 

Our Spirit-world According to 

Astronomy. 

May 8, 1898. 
To the Editor of The Banner ok Light: 

As my last left incomplete the question as to the 
locality of the spirit-world, I will resume the same 
subject. 

After becoming a Spiritualist, I noticed that many 
spoke of the spirit- world as being a counterpart of this. 
Did they mean, as their language implied, that it is 
another world than this, by the side of it, and certainly 
not it? This statement did not satisfy, and it was some 
time before my immortal teachers enabled me to see 
the actual state of the case. 

The spirit-world is not another world from this; it 
is an expansion of this. It is around the planet, and 
extends very far, and yet not far enough to impinge 
on those of Venus and Mars, in accordance with astro- 
nomical principles that we will proceed to explain. 

When a new system, the solar system for instance, 
is to be formed, a great whirl is brought into action in 
some large, unoccupied space in the cosmic ether. This 
action makes the inner portion of the whirl denser than 
the outer portion. Later, a subordinate whirl is set in 
motion, and its denser portion forms the beginning of' 
the outermost planet of the system. The others come 
into separate form in order, some of them having sub- 
ordinate lesser whirls, which produce their moons, and 
the sun itself always becoming smaller, with the indi- 
vidualization of each new planet. Our sun will be 
smaller yet when the next planet is made, but its orbit 
will, of course, not extend beyond the present sun, nor 
will it strike the earth according to the astronomical 
scare that some of the newspapers inflicted upon us last 
winter. 



A HAPPY YEAR. 53 

As to the comets, they came from a force generated 
bv some erratic agent; and some struck so wildly that 
certain comets darted off into space and can never get 
home again, while others have their orbits, and return 
with great regularity. 

Newton's laws of gravitation, as, ''that its force de- 
creases as the square of the distance increases," are 
mathematically correct. But instead of its being grav- 
ity that draws, it is the force of the whirl that drives. 
We shall continue to use his figures, and revere his 
genius, but the time will come when the theory of 
gravitation will be superseded by the fact of the vortex 
force. 

From what precedes, we see that the spirit-world of 
our planet, though immense to our conception, is yet 
limited by the whirl that individualized the the earth. 
While it extends beyond the lesser whirl that formed 
our moon, yet it never touches those of Venus or Mars. 
It is not a counterpart of our earth, it is around our 
earth ; and, as a whole, it goes ever around the sun, 
driven by the force of the whirl which formed it, not 
out of nothing, but out of the fine matter that pervades 
the universe. 

Its denser, central portions make the rocks and 
oceans, hills and dales, and the physical portions of all 
animal and vegetable expressions of life. It becomes 
less dense, more ethereal, as one goes from the planet 
itself, and not an inch further can we go from the 
planet than we are spiritually prepared to go. 

We are in the spirit-world inow, but in its lowest 
sphere. Here we commence our individual career, and 
unless we become spiritual while in the body, we shall 
have to stay here after we get out of the body, and toil 
and work, struggle and strive, in order to become fit 
to ascend to more ethereal regions. 

Nine years ago in Minneapolis the occupants of a 
carriage, utter strangers to me, drove to the sidewalk, 
where they saw me walking, and said: " Miss Judson, 
there seem to be two kinds of Spiritualists. Will you 



54 A HAPPY \'EAR. 

tell us what is the difference between them ? " I had 
never before given the subject a thought, but instantly 
a power seized me, and I said: "Yes, there arc two 
kinds of Spiritualists. One kind wants to drag the 
angel-world down to earthly conditions; the other kind 
wants to raise mankind up to spiritual conditions, 
and the latter is the kind I want to be." "Thank 
you," said the persons in the carriage, and drove on. 

I have declared these truths, explained them, dwelt 
on them, in my lectures and in my writings. I have 
declared them fearlessly, though I knew them to be 
unwelcome to some. 

But the higher spirits have worked through many 
channels, a brighter day is dawning, and the new 
century will see Spiritualism doing all portions of its 
appointed work. This work is first to turn Material- 
ists into Spiritualists by the phenomena; and second, 
to lead every Spiritualist who is worthy of the name 
to make individual, private soul-communion with his 
own the balm and strength of his hours of seclusion, 
and the unfoldment of the innate powers of his own 
soul the aim of all his efforts. 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



LETTER NINETEEN 



Combining - Church Doctrines with 

Spiritualism. 

May 15, 1898. 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light : 

The knowledge and practice of intelligent communi- 
cation between the living and the so-called dead are 
increasing so rapidly, that we see the above marked 
feature of Modern Spiritualism combining with all 
phases of radical and even conservative belief. Spirit- 
ualists have long expected the church, when convinced 
of spirit-return, to step out of the Christian fold and 



A HAPPY YEAR. 55 

disavow the old doctrines. We have done so, many 
have done likewise, and were the acts of all persons 
based on similar reasoning, all would do so. But some 
are so conservative, or politic, or conscious of which 
side of the bread carries the desired butter, that we are 
seeing all shades of even Calvinistic belief adroitly com- 
bined with spirit communion. 

My thoughts have been running on this subject since 
reading a pamphlet lately sent to me by some kind 
friend. It is entitled ' ' The Divinity and Personality 
of Jesus the Christ, from the Fulcrum of the Spiritual 
Philosophy." It is by John H. Keyser, who claims to 
be a Spiritualist, and to buttress his views of "Jesus 
the Christ " by communications received from 
decarnate spirits coming through mediums. Among 
these mediums is Mrs. Cora L. V. Richmond, and the 
communicating spirits are said to be Melancthon, John 
Wesley, Judge Edmonds and William E. Channing. 

In accordance with these communications, v Mr. Keyser 
claims that Jesus Christ is the connecting link that 
leads man to God, that he is the Lord and Master of 
souls advanced enough to recognize him, that he is the 
Saviour of the world, that when God created this planet 
he gave it into the hands of his beloved Son, that Jesus 
Christ is the God of this planet, and that because he 
lives, we shall live also. We are even asked by Mr. 
Keyser to accept the old teaching of Immaculate Con- 
ception. According to his spirits, Joseph and Mary 
were the parents of Jesus, and he was begotten through 
them while they were both in a deep, death-like trance, 
by the Spirit of God, thus making him both Son of 
God and Son of Man. 

That spirits do not in general give similar reports 
regarding the Xazarene is accounted for by their not 
being far enough advanced to approach the sphere 
where he dwells. 

We think it right to place these facts before our read- 
ers, so we may more clearly see the way in which 
church communicants and the clergy will manage to 



56 A HAPPY YEAR. 

combine the great natural fact of spirit intercourse, 
which they are forced to accept in this day, with old 
church doctrines, and thus prolong the reign of eccle- 
siasticism over those who choose to be thus ruled over, 
and who dare not trust to God alone. 

For my part, I am a Spiritualist in toto. God, as re- 
vealed in the on-goings of nature, and in the constitu- 
tion of the universe itself, is enough for me. I require 
no book, no dogma, no special medium, no particular 
decarnate spirit to reveal to me "the way, the truth 
and the life." I am grateful to all high and pure spirits 
who stoop to my present low estate to give me mental 
illumination, comfort, and strength. But they are 
every one of them finite, and no finite spirit is more 
God's child than another; nor can a finite spirit, in bil- 
lions or quadrillions of years, ever see God, who is the 
One and also the All of an infinite universe. 

The efforts made by these conservative Spiritualists 
will accomplish a necessary work. They build a bridge 
by which timorous souls can step toward the new. But 
their work is transitory in its effects. It will aid some 
of the present generation who need sueh props; but 
succeeding generations will discard such props, such 
crutches, and dwell in the open light of day, where many 
of us now dwell, and which my devoted father and 
mother attained after leaving the physical body. Both 
of them dwell joyfully in God, and both declare that 
Jesus of Nazareth is not God in any sense of the word, 
and that he is in no way the Son of God more than 
any other finite being. 

Some will sigh to read this. Old dogmas die hard, 
especially when they have been wedded to ecclesiastical 
power, but die they must. For one 1 fear not to walk 
untrammeled in the boundless fields of intuition, rest- 
ing forever as a finite soul in my source, the infinite 
Soul of the universe. 

Dogmas arise out of thoughts. That Jesus is the God 
of this planet is a thought, for it places the concept 
of Jesus within the concept of the God of this planet. 



A HAPPY YEAR. 57 

And a thought adopted as a religious doctrine becomes 
a dogma. 

That God is love, or, as Mr. Dawbarn words it, 
11 Love is so much more powerful than hate," in atoms 
and in worlds, is an intuition, implanted innately in a 
finite soul by its infinite source. Intuitions do not create 
dogmas. Dogmas perish ; intuitions abide forever. 
Yours for humanity and for spirituality 



LETTER TWENTY. 

Music for Our Meetings. 

May 22, 1898. 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light: 

It was Beranger who said be cared not who made the 
laws for a people, provided he could make the songs. 
Mr. Moody, so endowed with practical power in spite 
of his erroneous theology, recognized from the begin- 
ning of his public career the potent influence of music; 
and we well remember how Moody and Sankey, the one 
with his plain talk and the other with his sweet sing- 
ing, went through Christendom and prolonged the 
reign of " orthodoxy " for two or three decades. 

Politicians know this power, and campaigns have 
been won by the spontaneous singing of a popular song. 
The influence of 

" John Brown of Harper's Ferry, 
With his nineteen men so few, 
Who frightened Old Virginny 

Till she trembled through and through," 

was deepened and widened by the well-known cam- 
paign song, and by the majestic lines of Julia Ward 
Howe. 

The worship of Jesus and the belief in his atoning 
blood lingers in many a heart, because of the simple 
words and tune of '' Jesus, lover of my soul," and 
kindred melodies. And it does seem strange indeed to 



58 A HAPPY YEAR. 

go to a spiritualistic meeting-, and hear those present 
swell the volume of song with such words as "There is 
is a fountain filled with blood," "To-day the Saviour 
calls," " Wash me whiter than snow," and similar songs 
presenting a false theology. 

If we asked the leaders why they give out these 
hymns, they would say it is because the people know 
these tunes. If twenty-five copies of the " Spiritual 
Harp " or the " Star of Progress" were scattered through 
the audience there would be very few to sing, for it is a 
small minority who can read music, and dare to let their 
voices sound out alone. And many cannot see, because 
they have " left their glasses at home." 

When I carried on meetings a year and a half in 
Minneapolis I had twenty one spiritual hymns printed 
on cardboard of the durable " tough check," every one of 
which went to tunes familiar to most persons. And I 
took fifty of them with me in my missionary labors in 
Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri and Kansas. 
They were simply invaluable. But there was not room 
for the tunes, and so they served but a transitory pur- 
pose, though I had no difficulty in inducing the audi- 
ence to sing wherever I went. 

Most of the regular spiritualistic meetings I have met 
have a choir, or a soloist, and if a general hymn is given 
out those who sing are so few that it is depressing, instead 
of inspiring as it should be. The general complaint 
is that Spiritualists cannot, or will not, sing. But Spirit- 
ualists are not different from other people; they can 
and will sing, if the proper conditions be supplied. 

What we need for our meetings is a singing book 
with plain, durable covers, on good paper, with clear, 
large type for both words and music, with the songs all 
adapted to progress and to spiritualistic thought, with 
most of the tunes familiar to everybody, and the books 
to be procured at what everyday people consider a rea- 
sonable price. Of course every one would find some 
songs that he would not have put in, for tastes differ. 

I have seen one compilation that contains such tunes 
as "Happy Day," "Come, thou Fount," "Last Rose of 



A HAPPY YEAR. 59 

Summer," "Hold the Fort," " Mart}'n," "Marseillaise," 
"I'm a Pilgrim, " "Annie Laurie,"" Home, Sweet 
Home," " Maryland," and so on; and all adapted 
with words that a Spiritualist can sing with pleasure. 
" Bleeding Feet " is set to " Happy Day," and I will give 
a stanza: 

" Such love have we beyond the gates 
For all the hurt and sorrow torn ; 
We come when trouble e'er awaits, 

Where pain attends from night to morn. 

Bleeding feet, bleeding feet, 

That give before the st-ain and heat, 

The stones and roughness that they meet, 

Of you for whom our hearts do beat, 

Bleeding feet, bleeding feet, 

That give before the strain and heat." 

The war cloud is causing many sorrows for our fair 
land; and many will need what Spiritualism alone can 
give, and such a song book would reach those who can 
be reached in no other way. We hope that these sugges- 
tions will take root in many towns all over the country. 
Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



LETTER TWENTY-ONE. 

England and the United States. 

May 29, 1898. 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light: 

There are all sorts of finite souls now in existence, 
differing widely from each other, being roughly class- 
ified as good, bad, and indifferent. But this mode of 
classifying them does not accord with the spiritual 
philosophy. According to that, all souls, in all worlds 
and in all eras of time, come out from infinite stful, 
partake of its inherent nature, and are therefore good 
in their germ. And the reason they are called good 
or bad is because they are in different stages of devel- 
opment. In fact, none are absolutely good except thy 
infinite source, and none are absolutely bad, simple 



60 A HAPPY YEAR. 

because God is infinite. Therefore, good and bad are 
only relative, and what is called good in one age may- 
be considered base and degrading after the lapse of 
five hundred years. 

Charles Kingsley said in " Hypatia " that Christianity 
is democratic, while Spiritualism is aristocratic. This 
seemed puzzling when first read, but some acquaint- 
ance with spiritualistic thought makes this statement 
clear. Christianity as expounded by Paul, and adopted 
by the church at large, makes works of less account 
than faith, and places the condition of Jack the Ripper 
and Judas on a par with that of Mr. Moody, provided 
they have accepted the righteousness of Christ for 
their own. This is religious democracy. 

Spiritualism, on the other hand, makes the condition 
of souls differ in and of themselves, and according to 
their own acts. Each soul occupies his own round on 
the great ladder of progression, and mounts to the next 
higher one by his own efforts, and not because he be- 
lieves in someone else. The Nazerene taught this 
substantially, but was painfully misunderstood by 
Paul. 

All are not on a par: some are better than others. 
But there is hope for all ; and the place attained by the 
purest and most self-denying man who ever walked the 
planet, can sometime be attained by the lowest one, if 
he. perseveres in laboring to rise. 

Besides the individual and personal development of 
each soul, there is a racial development which interests 
greatly those spirits whose advanced outlook enables 
them to glance over ages and the progress of nations. 
Our view is small, compared with theirs. Still, by 
opening the inner nature, we may receive some im- 
pressions of the great truths which their minds grasp. 
With vision narrowed by age and circumstance, we 
sympathised with the colonial struggle to be free from 
the parent country, and exulted when that was accom- 
plished. England became jealous of our growing 
power, and naughtily harrassed us, till we had to de- 
fend our rights by war in 1812. And she was not 



A HAPPY YEAR. 61 

always kind when we struggled mightily to preserve 
the integrity of our Nation during the Civil War. 

But these were family quarrels. Sometimes the 
older brothers and sisters become angry with a rapidly 
growing, aggressive and impudent child. But after 
all are grown and have homes of their own, the old 
love comes back. They remember that the same father 
begot them, that the same mother bore them, that the 
same roof-tree sheltered them ; and this love waxes so 
strong that they will defend those whom they pounded, 
when little, against all the world. 

The English people are #our blood relations, and we 
are theirs. We share the Anglo-Saxon stock ; our lines 
of thought and our religion are akin. We pounded 
each other in 1776 and in 1812, and when she did not 
thoroughly sympathize with us in 1861, it cut us to the 
heart. 

But let other nations of other races, and of other 
lines of thought and of differing religions, cause Eng- 
land's foundation to tremble by savage onslaught, and 
we should stand by her ; and she would do the same 
by us. And Germany will do the same, if she remain 
true to her racial instincts. 

And these grand, high spirits, who see what we can- 
not see, well know that England and America stand 
for humanity, for light, for civil and religious liberty, 
and that their united efforts will form the great rally- 
ing-point for human civilization. Torture for pleasure, 
torture for political punishment, priestly tyrrany,fetters 
for the human intellect, the invasion of the home by 
military bondage, are all obnoxious to the Anglo-Saxon 
mind, and from the celestial outlook, they are to fall by 
and by. 

But throes of agony must be endured to accomplish 
this, and great suffering prevail during decades of 
years. Still, right will at last become dominant ; Or- 
muzd will subdue Ahriman; and free government and 
free religion will allow untrammeled spiritual develop- 
ment over wide areas of the continents of the earth. 

We do not fight Spain in revenge for her exploding 



62 A HAPPY YEAR. 

the Maine. We fight to free tortured Cuba, and to free 
the mind enthralled by priestly tyranny, and warped 
by bull-fights, and by the Inquisition. And alas ! it 
is more than Spain that we shall have to fight. Let 
our hearts ever pulse to the higher motive. Let us 
look to the spiritual hills "whence cometh our help." 
Then will " troops of beautiful, strong angels " attend 
the counsels of our leaders, strengthen the arms of our 
militia, and show our ocean gunners how to aim, not 
because we want to avenge the Maine, but because we 
want the world to become better, and its true spiritual 
development to be advanced. 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



LETTER TWENTY-TWO. 

Selfishness and Love. 

June 5, 1898. 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light : 

" But the greatest of these is love." On this state- 
ment, credited to Paul of Tarsus, Mr. Drummond has 
written his book, entitled '• The Greatest Thing in the 
World." 

In the Persian system of mythology, though Ahri- 
man, the evil principle, is as powerful as Oromasdes, 
the good, yet the latter will triumph in the long run, 
because he can foresee the results of his own acts, 
which the bad one cannot do. 

So, though envy and hate seem in certain crises of 
human action to be as powerful as love, yet love wins 
in the end, because those who love have a broader in- 
telligence. Envy sees one side, his own; love sees both 
sides, and he also sees the eventual triumph of good 
over ill. 

Hate sometimes conquers by brute force, but its con- 
quest is not permanent. The cruelly-treated horse 
whose mouth is lacerated by improper gear, because 
his driver is a brute, is conquered for the moment; but 



A HAPPY YEAR. 63 

the financial loss caused by brutality retaliates in his 
favor after the ill -temper of his owner has wreaked its 
passion. 

But the wise owner, who holds the confidence of his 
animals by being always kind as well as firm, has docile 
and useful creatures. Persons sometimes say wonder- 
ingly, " I wish my dog would mind me as yours does 
you. When I call him, he goes the other way." Well, 
I should think he would. Animals, children, and grown- 
up persons, too, 

' ' Will follow at your call 
If you are always kind. " 

And kindness includes not only food and shelter; it in- 
cludes kind words that express real love in the heart. 
But sometimes persons are unkind to us, though we 
treat them well. In that case they are followers of 
Ahriman, and are so mentally blind that they do not 
see the results of their actions. They will be in hot 
water by and by; and, if we really have the spirit of 
love, we shall be sorry for them, and not be glad. 

Some persons believe in love; but their love is all 
for themselves, for their family, for their town, their 
State, their nation. That is not love. It is a more or 
less diffused selfishness. Love is a bubbling spring 
that comes spontaneously from the inner being, and is 
measured, not by the worthiness or the market value 
of its object, but by its own strength. This kind of love 
makes its possessor divine. Progressive decarnate 
spirits have this love. Quoting from " Inspiration's 
Voice;" 

"We know so well, we know so well, 

Their love holds endlessly, 

In spirit-life so free." 

How sad they feel when they see us wanting in love, 
for they see the effect on our inner nature more clearly 
than we ! Ah! how easy it is tor selfishness to creep in! 
A mother sees a neighbor's child puny and pale. She 
calls attention to the plump rosiness of her own dar- 
ling's cheeks. A person writes a successful book, and 
another, who cares for the furtherance of the same 



64 A HAPPY YEAR. 

cause, feels ill-tempered because he did not write it 
himself. If he is a Spiritualist, perhaps he says that 
the spirits have told him that he is going to write one. 
A modest speaker tries to deliver a useful lecture. 
Persons say to him afterwards, " I was quite interested, 
but of course there was not a thing in it that I did not 
know before." 

Even great religious establishments sometimes show 
this narrow selfishness caused by the want of love. 
Some one prepares a work designed for the same use 
as one of their own productions. Though their own is 
not capable of doing such good as the new one, they 
decry it, and do everything possible to hinder its pro- 
gress. They thus show a love for self rather than love 
for human advancement, which all the works were 
designed to promote. 

But we Spiritualists, who walk in heaven's light, 
under angelic guidance, who see what the blind world 
cannot see, must know well that love and love alone 
will prevail in the long run, and that those who walk 
contrary to its impulses are causing a warp in their 
spiritual growth that will give them pain and shame 
when they enter the dazzling day of the spirit-land.. 
Here we can partially hide the wrong we feel, but not 
so there. 

Oh! for a broader outlook! Oh! for more of the 
spirit that will lead us to see another working for the 
cause we all hold dear, in his own way, without putting 
stumbling-blocks in his path because it is not our way, 
or because we fear that some person may like his work 
better than our own! What! profess Spiritualism, and 
yet demand that all shall hew to precisely the same 
line, like a row of spools cut out by the same machine! 
Live, and let live. Or rather, let others live and work, 
and then we can work more effectually, and live more 
angelically. 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



A HAPPY YEAR. 65 



LETTER TWENTY-THREE. 

Visits to "Orthodox" Churches 

June 12, 1 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light: 

When it was decided that I should live in Arlington, 
some good church friends told me that I could have no 
social status here if I should foolishly allow myself to 
be known as a Spiritualist. And, as the Presbyterian 
church is supposed to take social precedence here, they 
seriously advised me to connect myself with that 
church. 

Of course I did not give this well-meant advice one 
moment's consideration, and I let all persons with whom 
I come into social and business relations know very 
soon that I am a Spiritualist, and the reasons therefor. 

So far from hypocritically connecting myself with 
any church here, I have not even been to any church in 
town on Sunday until to-day. I have been to an even- 
ing week-night prayer-meeting five times: once to the 
Baptist, three times to the Methodist, and once to the 
Presbyterian. I have a cogent reason for preferring 
prayer-meetings to Sunday services. It is that being 
an " ordained minister of the gospel, science and philo- 
sophy of Spiritualism," it does not seem natural to me 
to listen only; and though my mouth must be closed at 
those church-meetings on Sunday, I can sometimes get 
a chance to speak at a prayer-meeting. I spoke with 
great pleasure at the Methodist meeting, and thought 
myself quite unorthodox, for I claimed that it was im- 
possible for any soul to be permanently lost, as all are 
God's offspring; and that after getting out of this 
fleshly body, we shall continue, as well as here, to have 
our own option whether to make our bed in hell, or 
ascend into heaven. 

On telling the good minister that I hoped I had not 
offended his prejudices too severely, he said he liked it 
well, and urged me to come often, and always speak. 



00 ■ A HAPPY YEAR. 

And one good sister there, who has since become my 
friend, said my words on that occasion went with her 
for many days, and she had quoted them to her friends. 

All the churches here are upon the hill, and among 
the aristocracy of Arlington, while my little home is 
surrounded by Swedes and Germans, in the very lowest 
part of the town, where the malaria walketh, and the 
Jersey mosquito flyeth by night, and the wicked fly 
putteth in his best work when the sun is above the 
horizon. 

Some weeks ago a lady from the Presbyterian church 
called, and asked me if I would address the Ladies' 
Foreign and Home Missionary Society of that church 
at one of its meetings. I willingly consented, and my 
theme was of course Burmah, and the work of my 
parents there. 

Before speaking, they asked me to lead them in 
prayer. I did so, standing, for it is several years since 

1 could see the propriety of kneeling to any being, cre- 
ated or increate. Toward the close of my address I 
told them that my views had greatly changed from 
those of my parents while in earth life; and that I had 
very good reasons for knowing that their views on 
many points have altered since entering spirit-life. I 
cited the doctrine of eternal punishment, and told them 
flatly that in my opinion it was a wicked doctrine. But 
the ladies were kind to me, and voted me an honorary 
member of their society. 

Last Friday evening I climbed the hill to attend the 
Presbyterian prayer-meeting, with the words of Puck 
on my lips: 

•' ril be an auditor, 
An actor too, perhaps, if I see cause." 

I was conducted by the pastor, a man of breeding, 
learning, brilliant parts, and an earnest worker. The 
subject was the next Sunday's lesson, the seven things 
said by Christ on the cross. 

He said Christ was not an imposter, in contrast with 
Voltaire and Paine, who were, the latter being a drunk- 
ard as well. He did not say that Paine was no more an 



A HAPPY YEAR. b? 

infidel than Frothingham and Minot J. Savage to-day, 
and that his religious views were held by Washington, 
Jefferson, and Franklin of his own day. He did not 
say that Voltaire was the exponent of the whole of the 
eighteenth century, which was characterized by the 
spirit of free inquiry; and that this free inquiry attacked 
not only religion, but politics, philosophy, moral and 
physical science, government, in fact, everything; and 
that the eighteenth century formed a fitting and a nec- 
essary prelude to our own. 

He said that the expression " That it might be ful- 
filled " was a "gloss" introduced by those "saintly men "' 
who copied the scriptures, and excused it saying we 
might have done the same in their place. When he said 
words in the Bible were a gloss, I recognized the effect 
of the higher criticism, and was reminded of Dr. Briggs 
at Union Seminary. 

The meeting was finely and effectively carried on, on 
the basis of the supernatural character of Jesus, and the 
atoning efficacy of his blood. The climax of feeling 
was reached by singing the following words, to the ex- 
quisite old melody of Annie Laurie: 

" There is constant joy abiding 

In Christ, my lord and king ; 
Of his love that passeth knowledge 

My heart and tongue shall sing. 
He is all in all to me, 

And my song of praise shall be 
Hallelujah, oh my Saviour, 

I am trusting only thee. " 

The evangelical church holds to these two points, 
the miraculism of Jesus, and the blood atonement, 
just as strongly as ever, in spite of the admitted 
"errancy "of certain passages in the Bible. For that 
reason I cannot be a member of any evangelical church. 
And I cannot join the Unitarians because a large por- 
tion of them are materialists, and deny the natural and 
scientific fact of spirit-return. With regard to con- 
tinued existence without a fleshly body, their verdict is 
" Not proven." 



68 A HAPPY YEAR. 

So you and I, dear, honest, and logical Spiritualist, 
must live and pass out without the pale of the Christian 
church. But we need not fear. With Spinoza, we can 
rest on God alone. 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



LETTER TWENTY-FOUR. 

Calvanistic Terror of Death and Hell. 

June 19, 1898. 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light: 

Many advocates of Spiritualism seem to think that 
so many in the church have been affected by its doc- 
trines, that the work is about done, and that church- 
members have, as a whole, renounced orthodoxy in 
their hearts. We do not think so ; but think, on the 
contrary, that when driven by the search-light of truth 
from one stronghold, they entrench themselves more 
impregnably in another. 

There is one old doctrine that has been more widely 
discarded than any other — the doctrine of endless pun- 
ishment ; and yet we know personally great numbers 
who adhere pertinaciously to even this. I actually 
know persons who felicitate themselves on the expec- 
tation that when I die, I shall learn to my cost, what 
hell-fire is, and that eternity will teach me that it will 
be endless. Of course, their opinion does not affect 
me in the slightest degree. 

But alas! many are unable to free themselves from 
this terrible foreboding. I will cite a case : I know 
a Spiritualist family of long standing, who are intel- 
ligent and noble hearted, and live and walk joyfully 
under the light of the new dispensation. There was 
an elderly lady of means who had been brought up, 
like myself, as a Calvanistic Baptist. She was a great 
sufferer from a complication of diseases, that gave her 
extreme torture, and rendered her helpless. She was 
remarkably intelligent and well-read, and in character 



A HAPPY YEAR. 69 

she was conscientious and truthful. No one could 
point to any wrong that she had ever done. 

This invalid lady was taken into this spiritualistic 
family, and was cared for by them faithfully and lov- 
ingly for years and years. But they were never able 
to dislodge from her mind the notion that she was not 
saved, and was to burn eternally in hell. She thought 
of God as an implacable being who would punish her 
forever and ever with hell fire. When her minister, a 
strict believer in endless punishment, came to see her, 
her terrified inquiry was, " Will I burn ? Will I burn ?" 
Nothing brought her any relief, though her kind 
friends said everything possible to enlighten and calm 
her mind. During the last twenty-four hours that she 
continued to breathe, her cries and screams were heard 
by the neighbors without ceasing, and expressed her 
reluctance to die, and her dread of the burning, which 
she was sure was coming to her. 

Poor, poor, Frances ! That was some three years 
ago. We trust that her terrified, but pure spirit, has 
been consciously enfolded by loving angels who have 
won her to realize the green pastures and the still 
waters of the exquisite spirit-land. 

While I carried on my school in Minneapolis, the 
pastor of the Westminster Presbyterian church was a 
good friend to me. On Fridays I used to give my 
pupils a long recess, and played for them on the piano 
while they marched and danced with great delight. 
This minister heard of this, and once talked to me a 
quarter of an hour on a street corner, entreating me 
not to allow them to dance, and citing the death-bed 
he had just attended of a young lady who suffered 
great remorse because she had danced at a party. He 
once preached at the Baptist church, which I then 
attended. His theme was eternal punishment, and he 
declared most determinedly that this suffering was 
punitive, and not reformatory. 

This clergyman was no ignorant exhorter. He was 
a man of learning, taste, and humor. He later received 
a flattering call to New York City. The last time I 



70 A HAPPY YEAR. 

went to see my brother, I saw on a beautiful church on 
'-23d street his name as the pastor thereof, and he was 
thus recalled to my remembrance. He will never 
change the breadth of a hair on this side of Jordan. 
Peace to the good, pure man! 

Many church people have loosened their hold on end- 
less punishment, but they grip all the harder on the 
dogmas that Jesus was deity incarnate, and that his 
blood alone can save. They found these two notions on 
his miraculous character. But we can upset even these 
in time by constantly promulgating and reiterating the 
glorious truth that all phenomena, either now in Amer- 
ica, or two thousand years ago in Palestine, are natural 
and have nothing miraculous about them. As people 
accept this fact, so simple, so true, so grand, the old 
erroneous notions of miracles, and incarnate gods, and 
resurrections of fleshly bodies, and blood washings will 
slip away from them. 

Years ago, I used to talk about the proofs obtainable 
by phenomena. Now my guides teach me another 
way. Talking of phenomena only whets the appetite 
of enquirers to see what they may never see, and that 
circumstances might prevent their accepting if they 
did see it. But when we talk a great truth, as that all 
that is at all, is sure to be natural, and not miraculous, or 
that the expression " God is love " means that every 
existing soul will have opportunities of advancing 
sometime, if not now, we are appealing to their reason 
and their common-sense, thus giving them substantial 
food for growth. 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



A HAPPY YEAR. 71 

LETTER TWENTY-FIVE. 

Personal Experiences. 

June 26, 1898. 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light : 

A late number of The Outlook gives Susan W. Self- 
ridge's charming- visit to Gladstone in his hiding place 
in Penmaen-Mawr, in which he spoke facetiously of his 
k ' cataract spectacles." I had my first pair last January 
for "distance," and a tiny steel pair without bows, to 
hook on to them, for "reading." But by April both 
eyes had altered so much that using them gave me 
pain, and besides, the vision became dimmer. I needed 
new lenses. 

The surgeon tested my eyes thoroughly last week, 
said they were firmer, and that I could now have my 
permanent glasses. He ordered two pair — one for dis- 
tance and the other for reading. I shall be able to 
write and sew with more ease. I must, however, con- 
fess that my left eye, " the Worcester eye." always 
pains me and always will except when quietly closed. 
It cannot be remedied, and " what can't be cured must 
be endured." It is not a severe pain, but it feels as if 
there were a cinder in it. It is the eye that broke open 
and lost about a third of the vitreous humor. Being 
allowed to heal without interference, the scar adheres 
to the iris and prevents it from contracting and dilating 
freely. Hinc illae lachrimae. 

vSome persons think that those who write books make 
a great deal of money. Successful novels, and such 
books as " Looking Backward," Mark Twain's works, 
and the Samantha series, bring in large pecuniary re- 
turns. But books like mine, that present Spiritualism 
in undisguised form cannot be very profitable in a money 
point of view. I have published all my books myself, 
assuming the whole of the expense. My experience is 
that when such books have paid for their original cost, 
including plates, nearly all persons have bought who 



A HAPPY YEAR. 

intend to buy, and the sales run low. I have, however, 
been more successful than many. Man) 7 have published 
works on Spiritualism that never paid for the original 
cost, and the authors have been obliged to reduce them 
to one-fourth the first retail price, in order to get any 
of their money back. One reason I have never been 
led to this last is that I put all my works as low as pos- 
sible in the first place. My object has not been to make 
money. My object is to get these books before the 
world, anyway, and if possible to pay expenses. 

Now a word as to my general health. If I keep 
very quiet at home, eat onions daily, eat no pie, 
cake, preserves, fat, strawberries, asparagus nor 
tomatoes. I sleep well and feel tolerably well. If 
I go to a meeting of any kind, and just listen 
without speaking a word, I am so weak that I 
can scarcely totter home. If I am away from home 
three days, I become ill. I nearly died, lecturing from 
place to place on the spiritualistic rostrum. I can never 
do it again. I have lectured where I had to walk three- 
quarters of a mile in a driving storm to the hall, and back 
again to sleep (?) on a bed, one corner of which rested 
on a pile of books, and which I could not make into a 
more comfortable condition lest the whole thing should 
come down. I have lectured where I was put at a 
hotel, in cold, stormy weather, into a room that there 
was no way of heating, and no blankets on the bed. 
The blankets were promised, but, failing to materialize, 
I went to a store late Saturday evening and bought me 
a pair which I afterwards took in my trunk. I have 
lectured when I had to lie nights in the sitting-room on 
a broken down lounge. I have lectured when my hands 
were so stiff with the cold that I could not turn over 
the leaves of a singing-book. I have lectured after 
being scolded at the door by the presiding officer be- 
cause the audience was not larger. 

I would rather live poor and alone in my home with 
my two little dogs, answer the letters of kind friends, 
give advice and consolation to those who come to me 
for the same, teach the children around to be gentle 



A HAPPY YEAR. 73 

and kind, cook on two little oil stoves, dig- weeds in the 
yard, and write every week for the dear good Banner, 
than lecture itinerantly on the spiritualistic rostrum 
with an admission fee of ten cents. Young women can 
do it, but I am too old, too weak, and too good-for- 
nothing to cater to the tastes of a spiritualistic audi- 
ence. But I am happy; nothing can rob me of that. 
Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



LETTER TWENTY-SIX, 



Spiritual Development Better Than 

Mediumship. 

July 3, 1898. 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light: 

The general principle that all that is at all is natural 
is applicable not only to the phenomena of the Jewish 
Bible, but to all the phenomena of our own intercourse 
with those who have passed to a higher sphere of a 
natural universe. Though very unwilling that the 
clergy per se shall do the thinking for us, many Spirit- 
ualists are willing that mediums and decarnate spirits 
shall think for them, and even use for them the divine 
attribute of free will. 

A medium uses powers that are wholly natural and 
that are possessed in latent form by all. We therefore 
claim that the first step to mediumship is to live accord- 
ing to natural law. 

Mediumship does not necessarily mean that the per- 
son possessing it is himself in conscious relation with 
decarnate spirits, or that he can commune with those 
dearest to him in spirit. It means that spirits out of 
the body can communicate with other mortals through 
his organism. 

We have known many mediums whose work gives 
large satisfaction to others, who are unable to get the 
slightest proof of spirit-intercourse for themselves. 
One in particular, now in spirit-life, told me that he 



74 A HAPPY YE.4R. 

would give any sum of money if he could know that his 
mother was really alive. Another medium, one of the 
finest for materialization that I ever saw, told me that 
he had not the slightest evidence for himself that our 
dead friends go on living, that he feared those beings 
who controlled him, and that he should drop the whole 
business if it was not for the money in it. 

It is truly delightful not to be in the lecture field any 
more, because I can now say freely what I really think, 
without having hatred displayed against me. The 
hatred of others gives great pain to a sensitive. When 
in one's own little home, surrounded and enfolded by 
one's own guides, venomed shafts cannot penetrate the 
barrier they erect. But when traveling from place to 
place, lecturing to promiscuous audiences, the slightest 
hint from my lips in certain directions was enough to 
make some throw such an influence of opposition that 
I really suffered on the platform. The main things 
that awakened the greatest opposition were the state- 
ments that the development of one's own soul is more 
important than mediumship, and that is better not 
to be a medium than to have a low " control." Though 
the whole scope of " The Bridge Between Two Worlds " 
points to the same, it did not arouse such opposition as 
the spoken word, simply because these persons did not 
read such books. 

That many successful mediums are controlled by 
earth-bound spirits is a fact that in time becomes clear 
to a thoughtful investigator. This fact is denied by 
some, and is declared by others not to be of the slight- 
est consequence. 

•But its consequence is paramount, and it were far 
better never to be a medium than to be used by low, 
decarnate spirits, who are able to use a mortal because 
the soul of that mortal is in a low and undeveloped 
state. This is especially applicable to those who earn- 
estly seek to develop as mediums, and make this their 
goal, rather than the purification and elevation of their 
own inner moral nature. 



A HAPPY YEAR. 75 

Why are such persons eagerly desirous of obtaining 
mediumship ? There is one reason, and we all know it. 
If they did not fancy it an easy and a lucrative way of 
making money, their quest would be less ardent. 

To show that I am, however, well aware that many 
seek for mediumship from high and pure motives, I 
will cite two instances that have come to my knowledge 
within two or three months. 

One is of a gentleman and lady in New York City 
who are earnestly cultivating her gift, with the sole 
object of their own spiritual development, and of convin- 
cing certain dear relatives that the claims of Spiritualism 
are indeed true. High angels are furthering their ef- 
forts. Certain mischievous spirits who annoyed them 
at first are controlled and instructed, and her gift is 
being manifested more strongly and effectually. 

Another instance is of a dear little coterie in far-away 
Nebraska. A boy among them was controlled by a 
pure and lovable spirit. One of the circle wrote me, 
" It was so easy to do right, to be kind and charitable 
and patient, when we could hear her every Saturday 
night." She also wrote that the spirit's words through 
the boy reformed several that had started down hill, 
and that one could not hear an oath in a week's time, 
while they all swore before that. 

But the boy moved away, and they were very lonely 
and hungry. They hold together, seek for the highest, 
try to yield to impressions, and some are beginning to 
develop powers for usefulness. They would smile at 
.the notion of making money by mediumship. They 
want it in order to do good and to get good. They 
make their living by farming, fruit-raising, and hard 
labor. And when Saturday night comes, they fill their 
cups from the fountain of everlasting life. 

Pure mediumship comes under rare and specially 
favoring conditions. Spiritualism has been degraded 
by offering mediumship in promiscuous circles and 
audiences at ten cents or ten dollars a head. 

A medium's powers deteriorate in a promiscuous 
circle, where the amount he makes depends on the 



76 A HAPPY YEAR. 

number of persons present. This drags mediumship 
in the dirt and the mire, and is in our opinion the main 
reason why Spiritualism is not revered by the world at 
large. Many persons, filled with a high hope, begin to 
attend the meetings, but turn away disgusted. 

Many raise the cry, " But mediums must live." Yes: 
mediums, like other persons, must have money for the 
necessaries of life. But let them make money in some 
other way, and reserve their high gift for only spiritual 
and congenial occasions. " But mediumship exhausts 
those who exercise it," say others. It exhausts them 
when used promiscuously, and when it is forced in 
order to make money. When used aright it does not 
exhaust; it replenishes the life-forces, as some of us 
know by our own blessed experience. 

Thank you, kind Mr. Editor, for allowing me to 
speak through your pure columns without wearing a 
muzzle. 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



LETTER TWENTY-SEVEN. 

Creeds, and the Muzzling of Ministers. 

July 10, 1898. 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light : 

Immersed here in America, as well as all over the 
world, in the struggle to make a living for self and 
family, in commercial, scientific, or literary pursuits, 
or in the quest for pleasure in varied forms, it is very 
easy for persons, in general, to relegate all soul con- 
cerns to those who they fancy are more capable than 
themselves in that direction. Those in the church leave 
their spiritual interests with the minister, the trustees,, 
and the older members; worldly and political men 
leave them to their mothers, sisters, and wives, and 
many Spiritualists, overlooking the significance of the 
name they bear, and the cardinal claim of individuality, 
leave them to inspirational speakers, and to other 



A HAPPY YEAR. 77 

mediums of communication between this life and the 
next. 

To be accessible to disembodied influence, con- 
sciously or not, is perfectly natural, and, indeed, uni- 
versal. Many an excess of anger or passion, and many 
beautiful feelings and thoughts, come to men and 
women everywhere from decarnate souls who are at- 
tracted to them by congenial tastes. Persons some- 
times say, " I do not wish to be a Spiritualist, because 
I do not wish those who have died to be about me." 
They are ignorant that being a Spiritualist does not 
cause the approach of the disembodied. It only makes 
one more conscious of this natural fact. 

Spiritualism is a fact and does not depend in the 
slightest on whether it is accepted or not. Many church 
persons, however, think their accepting it or not alters 
the case in hand. They are accustomed to dealing with 
matters in this way; for if they are Calvinists, all the 
world will be damned if not in Christ; and if they are 
Universalists, everybody will be sure to be saved at 
last. Instead of formulating a creed on the actual and 
evident facts of existence, they make their creed first, 
and then expect the constitution and course of the uni- 
verse to square itself by that creed. O fools and blind! 

All this unreason is because their ancestors have from 
remote ages adopted the writings of some mediumistic 
Jews, accessible to spirit-influences of varying degrees 
of intelligence and goodness, as the absolute and per- 
sonal words of an omnipotent, ominiscent, and omni- 
present God. This fundamental assumption is the 
cause of all these false and unnatural doctrines. But 
to this shifting rock they cling, and pathetically say : 
" If you take my Bible from me, you leave me nothing." 
It seems useless to tell them that God is found in nature, 
and that surely Infinite God must be enough for a finite 
soul, without the intervention of any book or any medi- 
ator. Such statements seem to frighten them. 

The Philosophical Jownal published a cute poem sev- 
eral months ago. It represents an old negro whose 
mind is greatly disturbed because his new minister does 



78 A HAPPY YEAR. 

not accept all 'the Bible stories as facts, and explains 
them away by the application of modern science. Each 
stanza ends with the refrain, partly pleading, partly 
objurgatory, and wholly funny to an outsider, " O my 
lamb! " The poem closes with the following stanza : 

" Take my Adam, take my Eve, 
Take my serpent that deceive, 
Take my Jonah, take my whale, 
And bust my religion ! Poor niggah wail 
O my lamb ! ' ' 

A week or two ago a Presbyterian synod of examin- 
ers of applicants for the ministry took exceptions to the 
advanced views of Mr. Bebb, and refused to ordain him. 
His clear intellect and absolute sincerity made them 
most desirous of accepting him, but they dared not, 
and he was voted down. One of the most active against 
him was my old friend, the Presbyterian minister, 
alluded to in my twenty-fourth letter. 

And " The Outlook " of July 9 tells how the Congre- 
gational Council at North Cambridge, Mass., advised 
the church there not ordain and install William J. Long 
as its pastor. They object to Mr. Long because he in- 
sists that some parts of the Bible are purely legendary 
or mythical; and that the salvation of all men is a 
logical necessity from belief in the immortality of the 
soul and the love of God. The second point is the very 
one I made with a delightful coterie of Presbyterian 
women here a few days ago. 

It remains to be seen whether this church will settle 
Mr. Long against the opinion of the Council. If not 
they better go over to the Presbyterians at once, and 
be ruled like them by a Synod. If they accept Mr. 
Long for a year, the end of the year will find seven - 
eights of them believing just as he does. It is to be 
hoped that this pure-minded, great-souled young man, 
who has spent fourteen years of his life in preparation 
for the ministry, will find a pastorate somewhere where 
he can preach the truth, the whole truth, and nothing 
but the truth. The idea of standing up in a pulpit and 
talking to an audience with a muzzle on! It is bad 



A HAPPY YEAR. 79 

enough for dogs to wear them, but for a human being 
to wear one is, as Dogberry says, " Most intolerable 
and not to be endured." 

Turning to another subject, and led thereto by the 
power of association, I will tell you of something 
else. Arlington is a part of Kearney, where Clark's 
thread is made. Early in June, at the noon hour, when 
the teacher was away, a small, hungry dog entered the 
schoolhouse, hoping for something to eat. The boys 
set on him, beat him, kicked him from corner to corner, 
and threw him among the little girls. At last he be- 
came frenzied with fright and pain, and bit two little 
girls. Then a policeman came and shot him. Then 
Arlington and Kearney had a mad-dog scare, held a 
town- meeting, and voted that from July 15 to October 
15 every dog on the street without a wire muzzle around 
his nose can be killed by anybody. So the law allows 
a crowd of cruel boys to mob and kill such a dog, thus 
fostering the murderous instincts implanted in the 
human breast by a remote ancestry, but supposed to be 
gradually eradicated by civilization. 

A muzzle is a cruel appliance. It prevents the mouth 
from perspiring freely, the mouth being the natural 
canine place for the perspiration to flow. Humane 
owners will keep their pets in the backyard and the 
house until these calamities be overpast, and subject 
them to the muzzles only v^hen really necessary. 

I never met such stringent laws before, but then I 
never before lived in New Jersey. It is hoped that the 
New Jerusalem will be different. To be sure, the Bible 
says: " Without are dogs," but the revised heaven will 
allow those who like animals to have them, while those 
who dislike them will never see a dog or a cat in the 
pretty homes the other side of the shining river. 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



80 A HAPPY YEAR 



LETTER TWENTY-EIGHT. 

Magnetic Harmony. 

July 17, 1898. 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light: 

Many writers on occult subjects misapply the word 
magnetize, using it where mes?7ierize is the proper term 
to use. To mesmerize, psychologize, or hypnotize any- 
one is for the operator to temporarily control the sub- 
ject, so that he will do the acts, speak the words, and 
see the sights impressed on his brain by the one who 
controls him. The force exerted being a mental one, 
it can be exercised by embodied or disembodied spirits 
on incarnate or decarnate persons. 

One who has yielded to this control when wielded 
by a mortal passes more readily under the sway of a 
disembodied intelligence. Such a person is a sensi- 
tive or a medium. In this way, mesmerizers have 
frequently made their subjects mediumistic. It was 
through such a human instrument that A. J. Davis 
originally went under the control of a disembodied 
intelligence, who wisely discarded after a time the 
assistance of a human operator. 

While a person desiring to be controlled by a spirit 
can often settle his capability in this direction by see- 
ing if a mortal can mesmerize him, yet many who have 
never been mesmerized are mediumistic to the extent 
that they can be sufficiently psychologized by spirits to 
see visions and receive impressions from the spirit-side 
of life. I belong to this second class. No mortal has 
ever been able to mesmerize me completely, but my 
father and other guides often assist me to see visions 
in spirit-life and to drink inspiration from the infinite 
fountain of intelligence. 

To return, some persons say magnetize when mesmerize 
is the right word, from the fact that a magnet attracts 
to itself particles of iron, and the mesmerizer can draw 
his human subjects to himself if he so wills. 



A HAPPY YEAR. 81 

But this attraction is not exerted in the same way. 
The mesmerizer, psychologizer, or hypnotizer draws his 
subjects to him by the exertion of his will, which is 
temporarily or permanently stronger than theirs. It 
was in this way that Leonora de Concini controlled 
Mary de Medici in the early part of the seventeenth 
century. Before being executed as a sorceress, she 
was asked how it was that she could so sway the queen- 
mother. " By the power of a strong mind over a weak 
one," was her haughty reply. 

It is not in this way that a magnet draws iron par- 
ticles to itself. It is because the magnet itself vibrates 
in unison with the great earth-magnet ; and when the 
small particles are brought near it, they begin to share 
in the same vibration and pass to the magnet, which 
is larger than they. 

It may be asked what we mean by magnetism. The 
answer is simple. Every atom in the universe has 
both kinds of electricity in it. When these two kinds 
of electricity pass to the opposite poles of the atom, it 
is in the magnetic state. Electricity is a force, while 
magnetism is a condition. 

What is true of an atom is true of aggregations of 
atoms, as organized beings, and the earth itself. In 
the great mother-magnet, the earth itself (we say 
mother, for she is the mother of our corporeal frames), 
the negative electricity goes to the north or negative 
pole, while the positive kind goes to the south or posi- 
tive pole. We call the north pole negative because the 
positive end of the magnetic needle turns to the north ; 
and every tyro on these subjects knows that if a small, 
free magnet be placed against a larger one, its positive 
end will seek the negative end of the larger one, and 
vice versa. 

The earth being in the magnetic condition, is in the 
healthful, harmonious, and thoroughly proper state 
that a planet should be in. And what is true of the 
planet itself, is true of that far larger world which 
surrounds the earth, extending far, far out into space, 
of which the earth is the minute nucleus. This is the 



b^ A HAPPY YEAR. 

spirit-world of the earth, the successive spheres of 
which will be the homes of all human souls during 
countless eons of time. 

This enormous spirit-world has its poles, and is of 
course in a magnetized condition, and only those souls 
whose forms vibrate in harmony with the same are 
able to pass on in its successive and more exalted 
spheres. 

These natural facts have great importance in our 
present daily life. It is quite impossible to have health 
of any kind, and healthy mediumship is one of these 
kinds, unless our physical body and our spiritual body 
are in the magnetized condition that makes them vi- 
brate harmoniously with the earth and with the greater 
spirit-world. Magnetic inharmony is the cause of dis- 
ease, both physical and mental, and to harmonize the 
bodies of the soul with external nature, as well as 
the soul itself with Infinite Soul, is the most important 
thing for each to do. 

So deeply do my guides feel this that they have for 
ten years sought through me to carry to others what is 
in their opinion the best method to harmonize the 
fleshly and the spiritual body with universal nature 
and the soul with universal soul. The first years were 
devoted to teaching me enough to begin to teach. 

In 1890 I began to teach others, by lessons, at Clinton 
Camp, and by directions printed in five Spiritualist 
papers. The lessons have been given in many cities 
and towns. In 1891 " Terrestrial Magnetism " was 
published ; and the directions therein, with a vast 
amount of elucidatory matter, were published in 1894 
in the work named bv angels, " The Bridge Between 
Two Worlds." 

My aim has been to reach as many as possible. Much 
has been accomplished. Many all over America walk 
in this path, and we have yet to learn of any who have 
tried these methods faithfully and persistently who 
have not derived benefit therefrom. The only trouble 
has been with some correspondents who paid more 
attention to the physical processes than to the spiritual 



A HAPPY YEAR. S3 

ones, thus opening the door to an undesirable class of 
spirits. The motto of my guides has ever been, "Pur- 
ity, first ; mediumship, second." 

The greatest obstacles we have met are from some 
Spiritualists who already fancy that they " know it 
all," from some mediums who are antagonistic to the 
spirit of the motto cited above, and irom a class of 
persons who think that all spiritualistic development 
should deal with the soul alone, and have nothing to 
do with the body itself. But, as whatever is true is 
sure to survive and conquer, we have no fears regard- 
ing the ultimate success of these teachings. 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



LETTER TWENTY-NINE. 

Sanitation : Kindness to Animals. 

July 24, 1898. 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light: 

I spent the latter days of my childhood with the rela- 
tives of Ann H. Judson, in a quiet New England town 
near the Merrimac river. All who lived in this region 
in the olden time remember the sudden and seemingly 
sporadic cases of tuberculous consumption, and the 
epidemics of typhoid fever to which it was subject. 
Calvinistic Congregationalism was the prevailing reli- 
gion ; and when a person died from these or other 
diseases, the event was thought to be a dispensation of 
Divine Providence. I well remember how after a death 
the minister would solemnly read from the high pulpit 
that Mr. and Mrs. So-and-So requested the prayers of 
God's people that the late afflictive dispensation might 
be sanctified to their spiritual good. Then the whole 
family stood up in their pew while the special prayer 
was made. 

All these people thought that sickness and death 
came as a special expression of divine sovereignty, and 
were not to be prevented or even accounted for by 



84 A HAPPY YEAR. 

science. Afflictions were chastisements from God's 
own hand, and to be borne in meek submission, while 
we " In God's hottest flame stood still." Whatever hap- 
pened, he did it, and we were in no way accountable. 

The family where I lived had several cases of typhoid 
fever, and it never occurred to them that the well open- 
ing into the kitchen, and very near the deep cesspool, 
had anything to do with it. God, in his mysterious 
ways, for their spiritual improvement, or in chastise- 
ment for their worldliness, saw fit to send these ill- 
nesses upon them. 

These diseases are less prevalent in this region than 
in the old days, for people have learned more of the 
laws of sanitation, and of the absolute necessity of 
keeping the water beyond all contact below or above 
ground with any disease germs. 

Some of us remember the dreadful attacks of typhoid 
fever to which the Prince of Wales was subjected. The 
drains at Sandringham Palace were overhauled, and 
yet he was again very ill. Then by severe scrutiny it 
was found that there was a connection between the 
drinking water and a distant reservoir of disease germs. 
This was corrected, and there was no more illness at 
the palace 

Last winter there was an epidemic of typhoid fever in 
the town where I live, and many died. It was found 
that the milk from a certain milkman came from cows 
who drank infected water, so they took no more milk 
from him. I always sterilize milk before using it. This 
is easily done by heating it to a point when " the 
wrinkled skins of scalded milk " begin to show on the 
surface, without allowing it to actually boil. No per- 
son, certainly no little child, should swallow milk that 
has not been sterilized ; unless we know not only that 
the cow is healthy, but that she eats pure food and 
drinks pure water. Had I dreamed that the people 
here did not use proper precautions, I should have ob- 
tained two hundred copies of " The Milk Question " and 
left one at every house. 



A HAPPY YEAR. 85 

While the epidemic was at its height, I strayed into 
the Methodist prayer-meeting, and was amazed to hear 
the pastor allude to one of these deaths as an afflictive 
dispensation of divine Providence, and ask all to pray 
that the loss might redound to the spiritual benefit of 
the relatives, and thus enhance the divine glory. I felt 
a good deal like saying a few words, but feared it might 
be an intrusion. 

So far no doubt many of my readers may agree with 
me, but perhaps in what I have next to say, they will 
think I am going too far. But I would much rather go 
too far than not far enough. " But because thou art 
lukewarm, I will spue thee out of my mouth." 

To proceed, I don't like the notion of drinking milk 
that comes out of an animal. The baby takes its 
mother's milk, and it does it good, provided the mother 
is thoroughly healthy, sweet-tempered, and wise. But 
it repels me to think of drinking what comes out of the 
udder of a cow. And besides this personal feeling of 
aversion, I think we have no right to take her milk. 

The cow's milk comes to the creature from wise 
Mother Nature, in sufficient amount to nourish her off- 
spring. And the calf receives it when hungry, which 
is very often. This is natural, and is therefore just as 
it should be. But human beings, who have a larger 
brain, that they use for tyranny and not for beneficence, 
put the cow into an unnatural condition. By breeding 
and special culture, they develop her milk-forming or- 
gans unnaturally. When the calf is born, instead of 
letting her rear it lovingly and naturally, they take it 
away from her ; and her pitiful lowings when thus be- 
reft give pain to a feeling heart. Giving her food and 
treatment to increase the amount of milk, they are yet 
so cruel as to relieve her of it only twice in twenty-four 
hours. I have been many times waked up on Sunday 
morning by the distressful cries of cows, who were 
suffering because the man came late to milk them. 
And they often begin to low for relief at three in the 
afternoon, but have to wait till they are called at six. 
All this is unnatural and painful as well as very selfish 
on the part of human beings. 



8t) A HAPPY YEAR. 

If only those marry who are fit to marry, and if men 
and women were so normally spiritual as to have only 
their two children, the mother could nurse her own 
child, and not depend on a lower animal. What kind 
of a man or woman the baby makes depends greatly on 
his sustenance in his early years as well as in the months 
before birth. If this sustenance comes directly from a 
healthful, intelligent, and spiritual woman, his moral 
and his spiritual nature have a better setting than that 
which comes to him by these unnatural by-paths. 

It is distressing to a feeling heart to hear the cries of 
an animal in either mental or physical pain. In Eureka, 
Kan., on my way to the hall on Sunday, I passed an 
enclosure where a mare was running around and 
screaming at the top of her voice, because they had 
just taken her own colt away from her. I had to go on 
to meet my engagement at the hall, and her screams 
died away in the distance. While lecturing one Sunday 
in Baraboo, Wis., policemen were killing a dog in the 
yard below. I had to cease speaking until his agonizing 
death cries had died away. 

Last Friday a little dog jumped from a second story 
window to get away from his new master. I gathered 
him tenderly in my arms, carried him home ; and, as 
he was suffering greatly, I put him to sleep with strong 
chloroform. He will never suffer any more. 

Druggists are not allowed to sell such chloroform 
without a physician's prescription. But I always get 
it through some medical friend, and keep it on hand 
for such emergencies as these. Shut the animal in a 
tight box, and at once put in a large rag saturated with 
chloroform, and cover the box well in a room with 
closed windows. Do not open the box for twelve hours, 
unless it seems necessary to put in more chloroform. 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



A HAPPY YEAR. 87 



LETTER THIRTY. 

The Basis of True Philosophy Must be 

Simple. 

July 31, 1898. 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light : 

Among the noblest words in our language are the 
adjective simple, and its noun, simplicity; while their 
converse, double and duplicity, are of another character. 
Simple is probably derived from semel, once, and plicare, 
to fold, and so a simple thing is easily understood. But 
when a thing is double, from duo, twice, and the verb, its 
ins and outs are so complicated that it is not easily 
seen through, if at all. As to duplicity, it is a noxious 
manifestation of character that must be discarded by 
one who seeks spiritual growth. 

But the vain world is apt to regard what is simple 
with scorn, and in fact a simple person has become 
synonymous with simpleton. 

Still, the truly great is the most truly simple, and the 
best teacher is he who can present a thought or a truth 
so clearly and simply that the pupil wonders that he 
never saw it before. And the best lecturer is not he 
who befogs the audience and leaves them " in wonder- 
ing mazes lost," but he who tells the truth so simply 
and clearly that the wise listener drinks it in as the 
flower-cup drinks in the refreshing dew, though the 
ignoramus declares, " Not much, I knew it all before." 

Philosophy, science, metaphysics, and religion have 
been presented in such complicated forms that common 
people shrank back aghast, and said that only the 
learned and the deep were able to understand them. In 
this way, the vanity of those who expounded them was 
flattered. Such were the teachings of many ancient 
philosophers and of the Pharisees. But the plain talk 
of Socrates was listened to by the poor cobbler as well 
as by Alcibiades, while it was said of Jesus that " the 
common people heard him gladly." 



88 A HAPPY YEAR. 

To be able to teach in this way, several things are 
necessary. One must see for himself, with absolute 
clearness, what he desires to communicate to other 
minds; he must be willing to use simple language and 
not seem learned at all, he must enter the mind of his 
pupils and see the difficulties as they arise in their 
minds, and in fact he needs true human fellowship and 
sympathy. 

Basic facts are never complex; they are simple. Com- 
plicated effects may arise as they work into practice, but 
in themselves they are direct and simple. The universe 
itself is the expression of the most simple fact. This 
underlying and all-permeating fact is that all that there 
is, is matter and soul. The soul is, anyway, and expres- 
ses itself by matter. Infinite soul expresses itself in 
the infinite universe, and finite souls express themselves 
in plants, in animals, in human beings, and in spirits. 
There may be less developed finite souls that express 
themselves in crystals and rocks. That may be so, but 
as 1 do not see that clearly, I cannot teach it. 

An atom, if such things exist, is not a finite soul; nor 
is an infinity of atoms the infinite soul. Atoms, 
hypothetically existing, are matter, and souls express 
themselves by them, singly or in the aggregate. An 
atom is not an ego, but an ego uses it or them, in order 
to manifest itself to other egos. This is Spiritualism,, 
and the contrary is materialism. 

Soul is eternal; it has always existed, and will always 
exist. If matter has always existed, it has done so 
merely as an expression of the soul itself. Whether 
matter is eternal, as well as soul, is beyond the knowl- 
edge of every finite being. We may, however, have 
our opinion on that point, though of course it may 
change in the course of eons of time. My present per- 
sonal opinion is that infinite soul is back of the ultimate 
atom. For atom one can of course substitute any other 
term, according to the scientific school that he adopts 
at present. 

My guides have never taught me to speak of infinite 
spirit. To call God spirit is misleading and illogical. 



A HAPPY YEAR. 89 

Spiritualists call their decarnate friends spirits, and we 
call mortals in the flesh men, women, and children. We 
call them so, because they appear to be such to the eyes 
of a mortal. In the same way a spirit appears to be 
such to the vision of a spirit. A spirit is a manifesta- 
tion of the soul within, the real ego. That soul we do 
not see, either here or there. We see the manifestation 
of it. The spiritual body, or the spirit, is one thing-; 
the soul is another. 

Such misuse of terms employed arises from an origi- 
nal want of clearness in our conceptions. And having 
formed the habit, many continue, and thus bewilder 
those who are entering on the study of Spiritualism. 

The constitution of a human being is, to our present 
view, very simple. Whether in the body or out of the 
body, we are dual, and the two constituent elements 
are soul and form. But, before transition, the form is 
itself dual. Here, or rather in, we have our fleshy 
body and our spiritual body, though the former is the 
obvious one, under ordinary conditions. And we know, 
by looking at the face of this body, whether the soul 
within is truthful or deceitful, loving or malicious, be- 
cause the soul expresses itself by it. So a human being 
here is constituted of indwelling soul, spiritual body, 
and fleshly body. 

When there, or rather out, the soul expresses itself 
only through its spiritual body, and so reveals itself 
more freely and unerringl) r . So a human being there 
is constituted of indwelling soul and spiritual body. 

Let us not say spirit, when accurate thinking shows 
that we should say soul. And, as it is never too late to 
mend, let us begin to speak aright, and so avoid mis- 
leading those who need our help. Whether we be on 
the very lowest round of the spiritual ladder, or far 
advanced in spiritual experience, let us change our old 
practise, if it has been wrong, and use exactly the 
terms that express our own clear mental vision, and 
convey it in its heavenly purity to those who are look- 
ing to us for instruction, for counsel, and for in- 
spiration. 



90 A HAPPY YEAR. 

When we go to a materializing seance, we do not see 
spirits unless we be clairvoyant. We cannot see spirits 
with fleshly eyes, we see materialized forms But many 
become temporarily clairvoyant at such seances, and 
this is the reason that some of the manifestations are 
seen by only a part of the audience, while the others do 
not see them at all. If there be skeptics among the lat- 
ter, they naturally suppose that those who say they 
see such forms are either lying, or are hallucinated or 
imaginative. But all things come to those who wait; 
and what is founded on nature and fact will certainly 
survive, and be accepted by all mankind in the course 
of time. 

In spite of the frauds created by commercial medium- 
ship, yet materialization, slate-writing, trumpet voices, 
and all the other phases are used at times by decarnate 
spirits to prove to a doubting world that souls can and 
do survive the change called death. 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



LETTER THIRTY-ONE. 

Three Ways to Communicate with 
Spirits. 

August 7, 1898. 

To the Editor of The Banner of Light: 

One of the strangest things connected with our Cause 
is the number of Spiritualists who are, after all, uncer- 
tain whether its claims are true. They are sometimes 
blamed for still seeking for tests, but the real reason 
they want them is because they are not certain 
that the departed can prove their existence by com- 
municating intelligently with us. As a drowning man 
will catch at a straw, so they will run to hear every new 
test medium and have a sitting with each new in- 
stance of development, in the hope of getting a test 
that will stand by them. 



A HAPPY YEAR. 91 

As the proud claim is made that we have graduated 
out of believing into knowing, it does seem a pity that 
with so many this " knowledge " is so uncertain, and so 
easily shaken to the foundation. I can truly say that 
since I had definite communication with my father, in 
December, 1887, I have never for a moment doubted 
his individual existence and his ability to reach me at 
certain times. I do wish it were in my power to reach 
these uncertain Spiritualists, and aid them to a surer 
footing. Many appeal to me for this kind of help, and 
many letters go out from this little sanctum in the 
effort to comfort by fortifying their doubting souls. 

One cause of this uncertainty is in the settled notion 
that we can know nothing unless our knowledge is on 
a physical basis. Many think that they cannot know 
of a spirit except through the physical senses of sight, 
hearing and touch. If we consisted wholly of a fleshly 
body and nothing else, that might in some sense be true. 

One of the basic facts spoken of in our last letter is 
that we are constituted of soul and of a spiritual body 
and a fleshly body. This fact, so universally accepted 
by Spiritualists, is adopted and then laid aside as hav- 
ing no special bearing on our relations with our dear 
departed. But it has, in fact, everything to do with 
the communication between the two sides of life. A 
common mistake is in thinking that we can have real 
knowledge of spiritual existence only through the phys- 
ical senses. 

One will declare : " Why, I know that my mother 
exists, because I saw her, heard her voice, and felt her, 
at the seance the other night." Then when some one 
says that that form was made from the elements of the 
medium's body by her control, and that this control 
may have caught from this friend's mind the appear- 
ance and voice of his mother, he either contests this 
notion, or plunges into a sea of uncertainty, and fears 
that after all he did not know that it was his mother. 

Another has knowledge that spirits exists, because 
writing came on the slates that were out of the reach 
of the medium. Such a one read my letter in The 



92 A HAPPY YEAR. 

Banner of April 16, where allusion was made to slate- 
writing being sometimes produced by incarnate as 
well as by decarnate beings, and wrote me that I had 
now taken away the last prop from under Spiritualism. 
This was not correct, however, as I was myself as firm 
a Spiritualist as ever, and also felt and still feel sure 
of having received slate writing from decarnated spirits. 

The better way is to open the doors of the mind wide 
to all the facts, with their premises and inferences ; 
and being grounded in the fact that individuality 
continues, and that communication takes place, we 
shall not be disturbed when we gradually find that we 
did not understand everything about the phenomena 
from the very first. 

I think we claim too much when we say we know a 
thing because we have seen, heard, or touched it. I 
am free to say that the only thing I really know per- 
sonally is the existence of my own mind. Reasoning 
from this one bit of knowledge, I believe that there is 
an infinite ocean of intelligence beyond and outside 
of me ; and that there are any number of finite intelli- 
gences with whom I have communicated or may com- 
municate in the future, through the medium of my 
physical and spiritual senses. The first belief is 
founded on intuition ; the second, on the testimony of 
these two sorts of senses. When we think that we 
know anything beyond this, my impression is that we 
delude ourselves. 

Let me never lose sight of certain points, by means 
of which the universe of thought and feeling coheres 
for my individual self. I am a soul, a finite one now, 
but with infinite possibilities, as I sprang from an in- 
finite soul. This soul of mine expresses itself, now and 
temporarily, by a fleshly body, and now and for a far 
longer period by a spiritual body. 

This soul of mine receives direct impressions from 
its infinite source, and also from a very few finite souls, 
either excarnate or decarnate, who are akin to it by 
spiritual affinity. And these impressions are more 
reliable, and therefore more valuable, than what comes 



A HAPPY YEAR. 93 

to me by the indirect means of my spiritual body and 
my physical body. 

A secondary and an indirect means of communica- 
ting with me is through the senses of my spiritual body, 
as clairvoyance, clairaudience, and clairsentience. These 
come mostly from decarnate spirits, and they are more 
reliable than those that come through my fleshly body. 

A third and a still more indirect means is through 
the fleshly body. This is used mostly by incarnate spir- 
its, and there are varieties, as talking, writing, facial ex- 
pression, gestures, and so on. Excarnate spirits use 
these very indirect means to communicate with mortals 
when they cannot come through the spiritual senses on 
account of their undeveloped condition. 

Another very indirect means is through a medium. 
Here we are hampered by the mentality of the medium, 
which hinders a correct picture by his own preconcep- 
tions. If it comes through the spiritual senses of the me- 
dium, it is better than through the movement of physi- 
cal objects. But we have no wish to complain. Instead 
of wondering that communications through another 
are no better, let us rather be surprised that they are 
as good as they are. 

As to fraud, we have only this to say : We have had 
unusual facilities for examining all the phases through 
many mediums, and we have very rarely found inten- 
tional fraud. We have, however, found much that 
looks like fraud, but which we believe comes from the 
medium's deluding himself or herself, or being de- 
luded by his control. We have found sincere medium- 
ship which was, however, hampered by the opinions 
and prejudices of the medium. And we have found 
bright examples, like "gems of purest rays serene." 
But these last were mostly where they were manifested 
without a view to pecuniary gain. 

When spiritual gifts are exercised for earthly gain, 
their purity is tarnished. The reason is obvious. The 
gaze of the seer is fixed on two things, the spiritual 
vision and the money. The vision is distorted, the pic- 
ture is not a true one. True mediums have told me 



91 A HAPPY YEAR. 

this. Of course those who do it for gain say differ- 
ently. But they speak from self-interest, and we must 
receive their opinion cum grano salts. 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



LETTER THIRTY-TWO. 

Loneliness Banished by Spiritualism. 

August 14, 1898. 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light: 

When persons remain in the old orthodoxy, they of 
course believe that they continue to live after the body 
dies, on the ground of the resurrection of Jesus. They 
have had no real evidence of continued existence; but 
as they are not accustomed to receiving evidence, this 
belief satisfies them, and they do not know what they 
miss. Even the thought of death is sweet to many of 
them; for they believe so firmly in the pervasive per- 
sonality of Jesus, that they think he will be with them 
in the dying hour, and receive them in his arms when 
they have died. We do not especially pity this class, 
for they often lead lovable lives, and are content. 

But we do pity those who have discarded the omni- 
present personality of Jesus, and the deific inspiration 
of the Hebrew Scriptures, and yet have no faith in the 
claims of Spiritualism. These poor souls have lost 
what they once possessed, are sunk in the slough of 
materialism, and are ready to say with the worldly-wise 
Solomon, "The living know that they shall die, but 
the dead know nothing at all." Many Unitarians be- 
long to this class, and we are sorry for them, because 
they keep their eyes fast shut against the beautiful 
light that now shines throughout our beloved land. 

For the same reasons, the writings of George Eliot 
seem very sad to me. That high-aspiring but groping 
soul lived to do good, and inculcated and practiced an 
enthusiasm for humanity equal to that of the Nazarene, 
but she was never assured that we retain our individu- 



A HAPPY YEAR. 95 

ality. She thought it more than likely that we are but 
momentary bubbles on the great sea of time, destined 
to glance in the sunlight for a little while, and then to be 
lost in the submerging waves. Her motto was, " Let us 
love one another, let us do all the good we can, for to- 
morrow we die." 

"Robert Elsmere"is less sad than George Eliot's 
writings, but one can sigh for that pure and humane 
young clergyman who gave up so much because he 
bravely followed where the unerring logic of human 
history and testimony led him, and yet could not see 
clearly that there is a natural life to come. 

A little book by Beatrice Harraden, " Ships that Pass 
in the Night," is so great a favorite with me that I read 
it every few weeks. But this pen-picture of the expe- 
rience of suffering souls has the same note of uncer- 
tainty regarding u that which is to come." The writer 
pictures humanity as always building bridges between 
the living and the dead. She says each bridge proves 
unreliable, and then they go to work and build another 
one. It is a pity that she cannot see what reason and 
science teach so clearly in this last decade of the present 
wonderful century. 

All the bridges between life and death, that I spent 
so many years in building, can>e to grief. The piers of 
some were sayings in the Old and New Testaments ; 
others were Plato's reasonings for immortality; an- 
other was the perpetual wish to live forever : 

' ' Perhaps the longing to be so, 
Helps make the soul immortal." 

But none of these bridges lasted me. They were all 
swamped and buried in the sea of time, and I came to 
think we were not likely to personally survive the sav- 
age onslaught of that universal conqueror called Death. 

But, most fortunately for my individual self, there 
came to me testimony eleven 3 T ears ago that was so con- 
vincing that all doubt fled away, and I began to build a 
new bridge between that which is and that which is to 
come. The first pier of this bridge was the testimony 



96 A HAPPY V'EAR. 

of my great and noble father, who was the soul of truth 
and honor while here, and who can never be otherwise. 
The second pier was the undying love of my angel 
mother. The bridge then built has never swerved the 
breadth of a hair. I often walk on it; and by and by I 
shall walk clear to the other end, and pass from this 
fleeting and unreal life to the permanent and the real 
life beyond. 

I have spoken of the two piers which I saw at first. 
These are beautiful, strong, and true. But there is a 
deeper, grander one, which I did not see at first, on 
which the first two really rest. This majestic, plum- 
met-sounding and heaven-scaling pier is the constitu- 
tion of the universe itself, which is the expression of 
infinite, beneficent life. 

My heart swells when I think of the solidity and the 
grandeur of this basic fact. And oh, how I wish that I 
could communicate this absolute certainty to every 
doubting soul now on the planet ! The door is open. 
Some see the door, but they think that it is shut for 
them. Others do not believe there is any door at all. 

I am glad that George Eliot knows now from happy 
experience the life beyond the portals of the grave. 
And many Robert Elsmeres pass to the exquisite morn- 
ing land every year, and expatiate in those happy fields. 
As to Beatrice Harraden, I know not if that be her real 
name or not, nor whether she be still on the earth- 
plane of life. Whoever she may be, I hope that she will 
yet be happy even here in knowing that there is a 
bridge, that it is secure, and that we shall surely walk 
on it into the city not made by hands. 

She puts some most touching words into the mouth 
of her heroine. Said Bernardine to the Disagreeable 
Man: " If I believed in God as a personal God, I should 
be inclined to think that loneliness were a part of his 
scheme : so that the soul of man might turn to him, 
and to him alone." 

All have felt that loneliness. Our bodies hide our 
souls from each other. Talk, "like the crackling of 
thorns under a pot," hinders the transmission of thought. 



A HAPPY YEAR. 97 

But we who are beginning- to learn what Spiritualism 
really is, cannot be lonely any more. We are indeed 
alone, as a general thing, so far as persons in the flesh 
are concerned. But when in quiet solitude, the door 
swings open, and then freed souls come to the impris- 
oned one, and give us companionship, love, and inspi- 
ration. 

When finite soul touches finite soul, without the 
intervention or the interference of either fleshly or 
spiritual body, comes an experience which is real in- 
deed. " Soul to soul, like blending of light, will our 
souls mingle." My father wrote me that once. I could 
not believe it then, but it has come true. 

But, sweet as is the companionship of finite souls, 
there is a still more intimate bond. It is that which 
binds each finite being to the infinite soul on whom it 
depends, and out of whom it sprang into individual 
consciousness He who has begun to realize this has 
begun to be truly happy. And, as individual existence 
is possible only on the basis of the existence of infinite 
life, so all the facts and phenomena of Spiritualism and 
of spirit-communion are possible only on the basis 
that all finite souls come from the same source. Could 
it be otherwise, it would be forever impossible for souls 
to understand one another. But as they grow toward 
the common parent will they come nearer to each other, 
and realize more fully the sweetness of existence. 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



98 



A HAPPY YEAR. 



LETTER THIRTY-THREE. 

Inspiration in Writing and Speaking. 

August 21, 1898. 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light : 

As I review the way in which I have been led, seek- 
ing thereby to gain lessons for those I may now be 
able to reach, I note how quickly the angel world 
sought to bring me back to the realization of the foun- 
tain of infinite life. During the first year after my 
parents and other friends had proved to me their indi- 
vidual existence, 1 sought no more, and rested content 
in this sweet knowledge. But by the end of that year 
I was led to a mode of development that has for its first 
principle the dependence of each and all upon an infi- 
nite source, the kind of development that it is the 
object of all my efforts to communicate to others. 

It is an absolute fact that those who walk in spirit- 
ualistic paths, and miss this great truth, are hampered 
in their progress ; and many, thinking that there is no 
infinite source in Spiritualism, enter other lines of 
soul-thought. Those in our ranks who claim that the 
knowledge that mortals continue to exist when de- 
nuded of the fleshly frame and can still communicate 
with mortals, is all there is to Spiritualism, are the 
very ones that hinder the progress of our Cause. I 
have met hundreds of them who make spirit existence 
and communion the be-all and the end-all of Spiritual- 
ism. It may be at present sufficient for them, but it is 
not sufficient for me. There must be both room and 
cause for endless growth, and this can come only by a 
reaching toward that which is infinite. 

I was delighted, and ought not to have been surprised 
this last week on receiving a letter from one of our 
most able and original thinkers to learn that coming 
into conscious communion with the Infinite Parent is 
the groundwork of his process of development. He 
has been reading " The Bridge Between Two 



A HAPPY YEAR. 99 

Worlds," and, though the formulae he employs differ 
somewhat from those that were taught to me, yet the 
thing in itself is the same as that explained in chapter 
eight of the book just adverted to. Those familiar 
with the work remember that the subject of the very 
first chapter is "The Soul's Relation to Infinite Soul." 

That book is a constant surprise to me, and an 
evidence of inspiration. I never planned the 
scope of the work, nor a chapter in it, nor read any 
previous chapter until the whole was completed. Then 
on reading it, I was amazed to see the orderly and co- 
herent sequence of all. Man3^ have praised the logical 
and philosophical mode of procedure. But as I did 
not plan it at all, the commendation is due to those wise 
spirits who planned it and employed me as their in- 
strument. Still, we admit that unless they had 
found similar qualities in the writer, it would have 
been impossible for them to have used her brain. 
Neither could they have created the style. That came 
into being during many years of mental training, when 
a teacher and a member of the church. 

It is to me a source of extreme gratification that 
what I am and what I have acquired are employed in 
this most glorious Cause. And I am thankful every 
day of my life that sufficient mediumship has been 
developed for angels to use my powers freely in order 
to give out what they desire to give. I am deeply 
grateful and inexpressibly happy to be used by such 
spirits. 

I have wholly given up ever thinking what is to be 
the subject of any of these weekly letters. As when 
in the lecture-field I pay attention only to physical 
preparations and to maintaining a quiet mind. There 
are no interruptions for me on Sunday, and after din- 
ner, with my study in perfect order, and my desk cleared 
of all debris, with penknife sharpened and pencils 
ready, having gone through the dear process of har- 
monizing my physical and my spiritual body with the 
magnetic currents of the solar system, and my soul 
with the higher souls of the spirit-world in the name 



100 A HAPPY YEAR. 

of the infinite source of all, I am ready to write. Even 
my two little dogs, who are ready to bark at the slight- 
est provocation on all other occasions, seem to drink in 
the spirit of the hour, and are quieter than mice until 
I get on to page fourteen of the manuscript, and am 
ready to stop. Then they have a jubilee, and we three 
children are ready to play. At supper I have my one 
weekly indulgence, a cup of nice coffee. 

I am as fond of coffee as is a parrot, if it has plenty 
of milk and sugar in it ; but it has a tendency to make 
me what a certain medium accused me of being chron- 
ically — " biljus." By the way, why cannot the controls 
of some public mediums use ordinary English ? It is 
as great a mystery, inexplicable in its inscrutability, as 
some of the tenets of Calvanistic orthodoxy. And 
why are some controls so discourteous? We do not 
like to be brow-beaten, sat down upon, and stamped 
upon by mortals, and I do not see why we should bear 
it from one because he is decarnated. It is my indi- 
vidual opinion, and of course I count as only one, but 
I fancy that such mediums are more careful to humor 
their controls than to put themselves into conscious rap- 
port with the Infinite. That may explain the character 
of much which comes through them. 

I am quite tired of hearing that Thomas Paine was 
an atheist. Because some one is called an infidel, he 
is accused of atheism. Paine was a devout man, with 
real reverence for God. And why did some one write 
a work entitled "Thomas Paine: Was He Junius?" 
If I were asked the question, I should reply, " Decidedly 
not." Junius was vituperative, sarcastic, envious, and 
malevolent. I made a study of his works at one time, 
and I find his spirit quite the opposite of Paine's. Yet 
it is common to say that a speaker who gives a vituper- 
ative lecture is controlled by Paine. I think he must 
either smile or feel sad at such assumtions. 

It seems to me a mistake for inspirational speakers 
to claim certain well-known writers or statesmen as 
their controls. Those really familiar with the writings 
or lines of thought of these celebrities fail to discover 



A HAPPY YEAR. 101 

evidence of their real personality, and prejudice is 
created. 

It often comes from a wish to startle, to dazzle, and 
in some cases to impose on the audience. It makes no 
difference who says a thing-. What is said is the main 
point. Besides, the names that men account great in 
their day often have less real merit than the humble, 
unknown ones who lived at the same time ; while those 
who are called great, and are really great, have so 
marked a personality that it is a risky business to claim 
to be controlled by them. 

Of course, there are some exceptional cases. Some 
speakers are wholly entranced,and some decarnate spirit 
asserts his personality, and carries it through while 
the soul of his instrument is being entertained else- 
where. And sometimes when no special claim is made 
certain persons in the audience recognize a personality 
by his manner, his diction, his spirit, and his lines of 
thought. But the more perfectly this takes place, the 
less does the medium know about it. I have myself 
had persons in the audience recognize some spirit who 
had inspired me. But invariably when this took place, 
nothing was in my mind but what I was speaking of. 
And in the thousands of times that I have spoken in 
public, I never once have thought of any spirits assist- 
ing me, but my mind has been wholly on the subject 
in hand. 

We are all different ; there is no set rule. The main 
thing is to be sincere, and to have our whole being set 
on reaching the souls in the audience who need our 
help. It is thus, unless we be wholly entranced ; in 
this case some one else does the work, and the soul of 
the speaker is elsewhere. Of course, the value of what 
is said depends on the mental ability and the spirit- 
uality of the controlling spirit which is, however, lim- 
ited in expression by the extent of those qualities pos- 
sessed by the medium. 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



LOS A HAPPY YEAR. 

LETTER THIRTY-FOUR. 

The Worship of Jesus. 

August 28, 1898. 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light : 

I was baptized into the Calvinistic Baptist Church, on 
my confession of faith, in December, 1852, and have 
therefore had from first to last considerable experience 
with the workings of orthodoxy. During these years 
I have noted a change in the attitude of the church 
towards Jesus. 

In those early years, while they accepted in general 
the deity of Jesus and the atonement, they still sang in 
the hymns, and heard in the sermons and prayers, 
much of God. Jesus was the way to get to God, and 
his sacrifice made it possible for God to accept the re- 
pentant. But for the last twenty-five years the various 
branches of the evangelical church have gradually sunk, 
and are now engulfed in what I will call Jesusolatry. 
Old hymns, expressing worship of God, have been 
altered so as to make the worship paid to Jesus alone. 
And new stanzas have been incorporated into the body 
of devout hymns, bringing in the Jesus idolatry. 

For instance, at a prayer-meeting the other night, 
after hearing them sing several hymns which rang the 
accustomed changes on Jesus, Jesus, nothing but Jesus, 
the pastor gave out " Home of the Soul," and I pre- 
pared to join in with alacrity. This poem had origin- 
ally three stanzas. We sang two, and then I came to a 
new one incorporated by the Jesusolaters, and I closed 
the book in despair. They sang this new third and 
omitted the beautiful fourth, which closes with the 
line : 

" To meet one another again." 

And when I get up to speak, though I try to keep to 
the points on which we agree, for courtesy prevents me 
from actually proclaiming Spiritualism by name in a 



A HAPPY YEAR. 103 

Calvinistic meeting, yet I feel that they find in my re- 
marks a sad want of the Jesus worship. Still, they 
listen to me, and I would rather speak under some re- 
strictions than not speak at all; for one can drop a seed 
here and there that will take root in some hearts. 

It is presumable that Moody has had more to do with 
introducing this Jesus cult, to the sad neglect of the 
two other members of the trinity, than any other one 
man. At any rate, the Gospel Hymns carry out this 
thought ad nauseam. As to the Christian Endeavorers, 
they are fairly swamped and swallowed up — heart and 
soul, body and bones — in this worship of a man. Of 
course they would accuse us of blasphemy in return for 
our accusing them of idolatry. 

Not that we have anything against Jesus; so far from 
that, we find a practical purity, a humanity, and a 
spirituality in his recorded precepts that we fail to find 
in those of Buddha, Confucius, and Mohammed. The 
Golden Rule of Jesus is far superior to that of Con- 
fucius. The latter endorsed the negative remark of 
one of his disciples that what he did not want to have 
done to himself, he would not do to another, while the 
precept of Jesus was to do to others what we would that 
they should do to us. The Chinese teaching is not to 
do harm to any one, while that of the Nazarene was to 
show an active and an aggressive love to all with whom 
we came in common contact. Kong-fu-tse was great, 
but Jesus was higher. 

Mohammed was about as far advanced in humanity 
and spirituality as Moses. Buddha inculcated and prac- 
ticed extreme purity and self-denial, but we find a more 
lofty ideal in " what Jesus really taught." Or, if he was 
not the one who taught thus, somebody did, and the 
ideal is the same. 

In the record of his words and ways we find that he 
loved little children dearly, taking them in his arms 
and blessing them, and bidding his less advanced dis- 
ciples to be as teachable and simple as those little 
children. It was he who praised the Samaritan be- 
cause he tenderly and generously cared for the robbed 



104 A HAPPY YEAR. 

and wounded stranger. It was he who forgave those 
who put him to extreme physical torture by nailing his 
hands and feet to a cross, and then setting the cross up, 
letting the whole weight of his body come on the raw 
wounds. It was he who went afoot everywhere, curing 
the diseases of hundreds of sufferers without money 
and without price, not forgetting to inculcate right 
living and right feeling in the future. 

It was he who stood and taught and healed day after 
day; and when his physical strength was all gone, went 
alone to some wild place to commune with nature and 
to be recuperated by decarnate spirits. It was he who 
rebuked the proud Pharisee, and praised the widow who 
contributed her little savings. It was he who preached 
the unparalleled Sermon on the Mount. 

It opens with his analysis of those who are truly blest 
by the higher powers, and tells men to be just as per- 
fect as the being whom he called his Father in heaven. 
In this superb discourse on right actions he declares 
that true morality is of the heart; that to be angry 
with any one is -just the same as murdering him; that 
he who has an impure thought has committed an im- 
pure act; that righteousness is more important than 
clothing and food; and that goodness depends on our 
striving for it. He would have smiled sadly at the 
notion that any persons could use his goodness instead 
of their own. 

Jesus was not perfect. He made some mistakes in 
word and deed that may be accounted for by his being 
a reformer and a radical, as well as a celibate. Sup- 
posing he did curse the fig tree. That fig tree had not 
borne a single fig for three years, and it was about time 
to cut it down. As to the tree's being withered up 
from the roots by his words, if that had been done by 
one of our mediums it would have been called a wond- 
erful " test." 

All this was the Jesus of the Gospel, and far more 
than we have space to declare. But the mistake of the 
church is in following the divine glamor of John, who 
looked in his old age al this pure, spiritual, and yet 



A HAPPY YEAR. 105 

aggressive man as deity incarnate; and in being guided 
by the mistake of Paul, who claimed that any one can 
appropriate to himself the goodness of Jesus. These 
two fundamental errors haye been like noxious weeds 
that have grown and spread in the garden of the 
church until they have almost killed the beautiful 
plants, heart-morality and worship of God alone. 

We are sorry indeed that in this age of advancement 
so many in the churches should cling tenaciously to 
these fundamental errors, and that men like Moody 
and the leaders of the Endeavorers should inculcate 
so industriously what reason shows to be wrong. In 
fact, human reason, which springs from and allies us 
with infinite intelligence, they declare should not be 
used at all in matters of religion. 

An intelligent observation of the trend of human 
affairs shows that acts must produce an actual effect on 
us and our posterity which cannot be effaced by any 
act of faith. And true religion binds every finite soul, 
consciously or unconsciously, to its infinite soul-parent 
without the intervention of any mediator. And religion 
is brought into action by striving to enter in at the 
straight gate, and walk in the narrow path of soul 
morality. Thus shall we tread the uplands of the path 
of the soul, and have for our companions those who 
seek the same ideal of perfection. 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



10G A HAPPY YEAR. 



LETTER THIRTY-FIVE. 

Diet versus Drugs. 

September 4, 1808. 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light: 

" A sound mind in a sound body," is a terse statement 
that has been prized for thousands of years, but it is 
one that impresses the average human being less in 
youth than with advancing ) ears. The young quote it 
flippantly in their school essays : those who feel their 
physical powers waning ponder deeply on ways and 
means to make the body healthful. 

As Spiritualists we are theoretically opposed to drugs. 
Drugs have come into use to nullify, or at least to 
lessen, the effect of some violation of the laws of 
nature. 

A person has eaten too much improper food. He 
does this for a time with impunity, but at last the 
abused digestive organs mutiny against their lord and 
master, and raise such a commotion that the whole body 
is ill and nauseated. Then the drug man is summoned, 
and orders a dose. If he ordered ten times as much 
the patient would die, for these drugs are, as a general 
thing, virulent poisons. But as the amount of poison 
prescribed is small, the digestive organs set to work to 
expel it from the system. In getting rid of the poison, 
they incidentally get rid also of that improper food that 
was clogging the way, and it is devoutly believed by 
the patient that it was the medicine that made the cure. 
Having done so well one time, he continues to eat too 
much of improper food, because he thinks medicine will 
cure him again. By and by he does it once too often, 
and then a chronic inflammation of the digestive organs 
sets in, and he wonders why he should be so afflicted. 

But if a person will indulge himself in wrong foods, 
he has to take drugs, and of course the sensible way is 
to avoid all that is improper in general, as well as those 



A HAPPY YEAR. 107 

special articles of diet that heighten the particular ten- 
dency to disease to which his body is prone. It is all 
folly to say with the Christian scientist, " Nothing I eat 
can hurt me, if I only think that it cannot hurt me; " or, 
with a presumptuous Spiritualist, u Oh, I can eat what 
I am a mind to ; my spirit-friends will take care of 
that." 

Merciful heavens ! have spirits nothing better to do 
than to labor to undo the effects of intemperance and 
gluttony ? 

Certain persons have written me inquiries as to my 
statement in Letter Twenty-five regarding special arti- 
cles of food that I am led to avoid. In that letter I 
said that if I " keep quiet, eat onions daily and avoid 
pie, cake, preserves, fat, strawberries, asparagus, toma- 
toes and beets, I sleep well and feel tolerably well." 

Some of these foods should be avoided generally by 
all persons. These are pie, cake, preserves and coffee. 
Coffee affects the nerves and also makes one bilious. 
Fat should be eaten sparingly by all, for large quanti- 
ties overwork the pancreas. It is not able to make a 
digestible emulsion of so much fat, the rest of its work 
falls on the already overworked liver, and biliousness 
is the result, 

Pure milk, or sterilized milk, can be used generally, 
according to the idiosyncracies of one's own constitu- 
tion. 

As to sugar, strawberries, tomatoes, asparagus and 
beets, I avoid them conscientiously on personal grounds, 
because of a tendency to too much uric acid in the sys- 
tem, and these articles tend to make that acid. Some 
uric acid in the body is all right, and some persons can 
use these articles without harm, but it would be the 
height of folly for one who had a tendency to too much 
of this acid to use the very foods that make it. For 
reasons connected with this condition I avoid starchy 
food, as potatoes and rice. 

For the reasons stated above tomatoes are extremely 
bad for rheumatism, for that is a symptom of too much 
uric acid. I know a good old Baptist of seventy-five, 



108 A HAPPY YEAR. 

who is a martyr to rheumatism, and who eats tomatoes 
at every meal, if possible, for two months in the sum- 
mer. I have told him about it, and begged him to dis- 
card them ; but he is far too orthodox for that, and 
considers his rheumatism as a direct dispensation of 
Divine Providence. When I meet him, I ask him how 
his rheumatism is. He tells me it is very bad. I tell 
him that I am so sorry. He looks at me reprovingly 
and piously remarks : " It is all right." He actually 
thinks that it is the will of a personal God that he 
should have rheumatism. 

I am here reminded of one of my neighbors, who was 
brought up a Roman Catholic, but has joined the Sal- 
vation Army. She calls herself a " holy ghost woman," 
whatever that may mean. She is a widow, and works 
very hard to support her three children, who also work 
industriously. They are all diseased. The boy of four- 
teen has a third abscess coming on his arm, and has 
two on his leg. He is always having abscesses, and is 
patient and sweet. The mother provides pork, and 
none of them pay the slightest regard to what they eat. 
She thinks that all these diseases come from the hand 
of the Lord, are his will, and that their only duty is to 
bow in meek submission to his high behests. One look 
at this good woman showed me that she ought never to 
have been married at all. She has a scrofulous neck. 
It is no wonder that her offspring should have a heri- 
tage of pain. She is very much alarmed about me, 
because I have -'rejected the only way of salvation." 

We are glad that an anti-vaccination compromise bill 
has passed both the House of Commons and the House 
of Lords. By this bill no child is required to be vacci- 
nated before it is four years old; neither will it be 
required after that age if the parent " specifies to the 
court that he conscientiously believes that vaccination 
would be prejudicial to the health of the child." So 
parents in England can now save their children if they 
are enlightened on the subject and have the resolution 
to assert their right. "For this relief, much thanks." 
Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



A HAPPY YEAR. 109 

LETTER THIRTY-SIX. 

The Czar's Proposal for Disarmament. 

September 11, 1898. 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light : 

When Virgil led Dante down, ever down, through 
the nine circles of the terrible " Inferno," each succes- 
sive circle imprisoning worse criminals who were sub- 
jected to yet more awful torture, on reaching the 
boundary of the eighth they were confronted by a 
yawning abyss, in the very bottom of which the traitors 
were confined and tormented in the sea of ice. 

Clear around this abyss were massive stone turrets, 
in each of which a giant was chained. So large were 
they that though their feet rested in the ninth circle, 
their head and shoulders rose into the horrid eighth. 
By one of these the two explorers were at the com- 
mand of Virgil taken in his hand and set down into 
the dread ninth, the region of cold, whose chill was in- 
tensified by the wings of Lucifer, who fanned this 
valley of the shadow of death with his mighty wings. 

Chained with fetters that even they could not rend, 
each walled in by massive stone-work, on the very bot- 
tom of hell, these giants were penned; and securely 
fastened did Nimrod, Ephialtes, Typhon, and many more 
expiate ^their rebellion against the tyranical gods of 
their day and generation, according to the frightful 
creed of Dante and the Christian church in the 
thirteenth century. 

Such a chained giant have the past centuries seen on 
the northern front of Europe and Asia. This penned- 
up giant is Russia. To the north are the frozen circum 
polar seas, and his only seaport there is Archangel, 
walled in by ice for nine months in the year. To the 
west are European powers who forbid him to advance 
one inch in their direction, and it was not till 1703 that 
Peter the Great seized enough land on the innermost 



110 A HAPPY YEAR. 

corner of the Gulf of Finland to build Petersburg-. To 
the south are strong- powers who already occupied the 
land, and our century has seen him fight England and 
France combined, to secure a harbor for his ships on 
the great inland Black Sea. 

To the south of his Asiatic possessions stands Eng- 
land, ever ready to menace his advance in that direc- 
tion, and the mountain passes of Afghanistan have seen 
as bloody encounters as any in modern history. And 
to the east this struggling giant finds China barring 
his way except on the mountain-locked shores of 
Okhotsk and the cold, inhospitable confines of Behring 
Sea. 

Besides these actual physical fetters and massive 
walls, our giant still labors under the effects of his 
subjugation by Tartary under Oktai. This slavery to 
the Mongols continued for two centuries, and is con- 
sidered to be one of the many reasons why Russia has 
been at least two hundred years behind the rest of 
Europe. 

Many have thought with indignation of this power 
for daring to exist at all on the edge of civilized 
Europe, with contempt for the uncivilized boors of the 
interior, and with helpless rage at the sufferings in- 
flicted on Siberian exiles by a pampered and a tyranni- 
cal government. 

But in the passage of years this Russian giant has 
struggled, not only for more sea- coast where he could 
disport a navy like more favored nations, but also in 
the course of his evolution for more freedom and more 
light for his people. And every step that he has taken 
for enlightenment was received with astonishment by 
the other nations, who said with all the skepticism and 
rancor of the Jews of old, " Can any good thing come 
out of Russia ? " 

When Alexander II. came to the throne in 1855, he 
made many reforms, the first of which was the abolition 
of serfdom. He established trial by jury, lessened the 
time of military service, and made other improvements. 
But when the poor Poles tried again for freedom they 



A HAPPY YEAR. Ill 

were treated most severely, and eighty-five thousand 
were transported to Siberia. Russian lovers of free- 
dom could never pardon the government for the suffer- 
ings of these exiles, and the same 3^ear that saw Gar- 
field assassinated, beheld the murder of Alexander II. 
by an explosion of a bomb. It was a sad reward for 
one who had done so much for his people; but this 
people were like a wounded animal, who realizes his 
pains, but does not always know just who is responsible 
for them. 

Later Czars have tried to make one language prevail 
all through Russia, and probably but few outside of 
her territory realize the amount of progress that has 
taken place during the latter half of the nineteenth 
century in this immense country, once the pity and the 
scorn of western Europe. 

But it is for us who dwell on the planet in 1898 to 
be astonished and profoundly gratified by the proposal 
made by the present Czar to the European powers in 
favor of a provision for peace. He proposes, not a 
complete disarmament, but a lessening of armament, so 
as to make the taxes less severe, and allow the money 
and labor spent for war to be used to advance the 
nations in the arts of peace. 

Though Nicholas II. has not gone so far as to pro- 
pose the total abolition of war, yet he has gone im- 
mensely further than any other one has thought to go. 
The strange part of the matter is that it was not Glad- 
stone who might have thus put the crown to a noble 
life who did this thing. It was not the President of 
our own country. But it was the autocratic head and 
front of the most autocratic government of Christen- 
dom that has taken the step. And a most auspicious 
fact is the affable way in which most of the powers 
have received this proposal. Had some other astute 
power played this hand, he might have been accused 
of insincerity and self-interest. But when Russia, occu- 
pying in civilization and enlightenment the lowest 
bench in the great school of nations, Russia, who has 
most earnestly battled to get away some of the advant- 



112 A HAPPY YEAR. 

ages from more favored nations — when Russia makes 
this proposal, all say: " Well, he is surely sincere, and 
let us join in, and have an earnest consultation on this 
matter." 

I saw in one paper that France objects to disarma- 
ment until she has won back Alsace and Lorraine. Pray 
Heaven that we shall not have to wait for that, for 
France will never rule to the Rhine unless Germany be 
annihilated, and France cannot annihiliate Germany. No, 
no: we are very sorry for France, and realize how try- 
ing it must be to give up the provinces and a billion of 
dollars to her triumphant antagonist; but things are 
as they are, and Celts must not expect to get the better 
of Goths. 

We were greatly pleased, Mr. Editor, with your edi- 
torial on this proposal by the Czar in your issue of Sept. 
10. The very least that can be said of the event is that 
it is the first great official step towards universal peace. 

When Alexander II. emancipated twenty-three mil- 
lion serfs in 1861, and when Lincoln's Emancipation 
Proclamation took effect on Jan. 1, 1863, the State 
papers that effected these events were of very great 
importance. But to our mind this paper by the Czar is 
greater than those, for this reason. Those acts related 
to the interests of a single nation; while this new paper, 
couched so modestly, as a mere suggestion, relates to 
the interests of all the civilized world. 

You alluded, Mr. Editor, in the article just adverted 
to, to the fact that the present Czar is known to be an 
earnest and sincere Spiritualist, and the strong proba- 
bility that he was spirit guided to this act. It is well 
known that Alexander II. emancipated the serfs under 
the guidance of the spirit world; and still better known 
that the great arisen fathers of this country gave Lin- 
coln no peace until he had signed the paper giving 
liberty to four million African slaves, held in bondage 
by the laws of free America. 

We congratulate the Czar that he is amenable to 
spirit-influence in so noble a way. Many of the 
crowned heads of European nations are said to be 



A HAPPY YEAR. 113 

Spiritualists. No doubt they accept the fact of spirit- 
return, but they have not always acted as nobly as has 
Nicholas. It was reserved for this ruler of a remote 
nation to listen to the voices that spoke the wisdom of 
the heavenly councils where sit the great founders and 
leaders of all nations, and to take the initiatory step 
that will no doubt lead eventually to a universal peace. 
The world can then progress as never before. 

War is a survival of the early brutish and savage na- 
ture of man. He had to go through that condition in 
his gradual evolution from primitive man to seraph ; 
but it is time to leave that step of the ladder below and 
behind him, and mount to those regions where compre- 
hended and accepted justice reigns. 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



LETTER THIRTY-SEVEN. 

The Troubles of Some Investigators. 

September 18, 1898. 
'to the Editor of The Banner of Light: 

One of the stumbling-blocks in the way of those who 
investigate Spiritualism is the fact that spirits give 
conflicting statements, not only concerning spiritual 
philosophy, but even in regard to modes of existence 
in spirit-life. These contradictions puzzle not only the 
new beginner, but even those who call themselves old- 
time Spiritualists. 

The contradictions in philosophy arise from the fact 
that spirits are finite as well as mortals, and from the 
biases caused by early teachings and hereditary con- 
ditions, trom which the disembodied have not yet been 
able to free themselves. The opposing statements 
regarding the modes of life beyond arise from the fact 
that the spirit-world of the earth is inconceivably large, 
and it is impossible for the most discursive spirit to 
know all about ever}' part of it. 



114 A HAPPY YEAR. 

Some time ago, I received a letter from a man who 
had been plunged metaphorically into hot water, be- 
cause recent investigations had proved conclusively 
that some of the phenomena which had been credited 
to the disembodied alone were sometimes accomplished 
by spirits yet in the flesh. He accused those who 
stated this to be a fact of not realizing the full signifi- 
cance of such a statement, and of putting a weapon into 
the hands of our opponents. 

Such a state of mind as was evinced by this man 
interferes with the efforts of those who feel that the 
absolute truth should be forever the object of all our 
quests. We subscribe reverently and with all our 
hearts to these words from M. Gaston of Paris: " The 
truth for itself, without any regard to the consequences 
that may come in its train, be they good or bad, for- 
tunate or to be regretted." Besides, the fear lest truth 
should overthrow spirit-return looks as if the one who 
fears is not quite sure that spirit-return is founded on 
truth. So sure are we, however, that it is a fact in 
nature that we court the fullest investigation, and are 
not afraid to go where actual facts learned by earnest 
search may lead ns. 

The mental attitude of Spiritualists like the one 
alluded to above has fought the labors of the Society 
for Psychical Research. That society has, however, 
held the respect of thinkers at large ; and the frank 
avowal of Richard Hodgson, that many of the com- 
municators are disembodied spirits, will have the more 
profound effect because he has in his long quest used 
all his ingenuity to account for every manifestation on 
some other hypothesis than the spiritualistic. 

The person alluded to above also said in his letter 
that the spirits knew about as much about the next world 
as the preachers did, which was just nothing at all. He 
founded this assumption regarding the ignorance of 
the spirits — an extraordinary assumption on the part of 
of a professed Spiritualist — on the fact that entranced 
mediums often give contradictory statements. He gave 



A HAPPY YEAR. 115 

as examples the opposing statements regarding re-incar- 
nation and the existence of animals in the spirit-world. 

He seems to think that as soon as persons get out of 
the body, they at once all believe the same on philo- 
sophical points, go to just the same place, and see pre- 
cisely the same things. He does not realize that mental 
range and modes of existence to the disembodied are 
just as varied as on the earth-plane. In fact, they are 
as much more varied as the spirit world of the earth is 
more extensive than the six-foot layer of space that 
follows the configurations and the convolutions of the 
planet, where the embodied breathe. 

The entrancing spirit of one medium teaches re-incar- 
nation, or that Jesus was the god of this planet, and 
made it, because he is taught these things by higher 
spirits, who oppose those who teach otherwise on the 
convenient hypothesis that those who differ from them 
are not yet advanced enough to dwell where they 
dwell. The controlling spirit of another medium 
teaches that we are not re-incarnated and that we pro- 
gress, always in more ethereal bodies, that respond to 
a higher scale of vibrations, after once quitting the 
fleshly integument; and that Jesus was a Jew and a 
finite man. All this does not prove that disembodied 
spirits have no existence. It simply shows that all 
controlling spirits do not have the same experiences, 
and that their theories regarding what they have not 
seen and felt are just as varied as when they dwelt on 
the earth-plane. 

The man of the letter said, with regard to one 
spirit's saying that animals dwell in the spirit-world, 
while another declares the contrary, that this was not 
a matter of opinion, but of fact. He illustrated by say- 
ing that if we went to Florida, we might disagree as to 
the effect the climate has on a certain disease, but we 
would all agree that oranges grow there. 

His position illustrates what was said in the early 
part of this letter about the spirit- world being incon- 
ceivably large, thus presenting in its different parts 



116 A HAPPY YEAR. 

much variety in the modes of existence. We are tempted 
to enquire how large he thinks the spirit-world is. We 
must try our hand at an illustration to match the one 
he used. 

Suppose that people lived on the moon, and that a 
man who has always lived in Florida goes to the moon 
and tells them about the lakes and the luxuriant vege- 
tation and sweet golden fruit to be found where he came 
from. Then suppose that a man who has always lived 
in Iceland goes to the moon and tells about the lava 
tracts and the glaciers. When they ask about the 
juicy oranges, he laughs them to scorn and says he 
never saw such a thing in his life. The lunar people 
think that these men have never been to the earth at 
all, or that they are arrant liars. So they feel till a 
wise man arises and says the earth is very large and 
perhaps has many climates and modes of existence. 

We are now in the habit of thinking John's heaven, a 
cube measuring fifteen hundred miles square, a rather 
boxed-up affair. But Florida has not the superficies of the 
bottom layer of John's heaven. Our spirit-world is im- 
mense, in its lowest layer extending over the whole 
superficies of the earth, but expanding in every direc- 
tion far beyond the distance of the moon. Doubtless 
animals continue to live in its lowest sphere, in the part 
close to the place in earth where they once dwelt; 
while some who are psychologically held to human 
beings accompany for a time to regions beyond. One 
spirit hates an animal, never sees one, and does not 
intend to lie when he says there are none at all in the 
spirit-world. Another spirit loves these beings lower 
than himself, rejoices at their exemption from the suf- 
ferings of earth, and is attended by troops of highly 
developed cats, loving dogs, and faithful horses. He 
comes back and says there are animals in the spirit- 
world. And so there are, in his part of it. And I am 
free to confess that I like the nature of this second 
spirit better than the first. Supposing high spirits did 
not love us, because we are less advanced than they! 



A HAPPY YEAR. 1 1? 

The summer before I found out that Spiritualism 
was true, m\ dog, who had been so devoted to me for 
four and a half years, was killed by burglars, who got 
into the house the fourth night after. He died for 
those he loved. I remember saying later to my friends 
that I must be in a very low state. I said all the heaven 
I wanted was a beautiful grassy place shaded by trees. 
I would be sitting upon a little knoll with my dog by my 
side, and my friends who walked in the road below 
would look up and say, "There's Miss Judson and 
Nicky." 

Yes: there is a love commingled with reverence that 
we feel toward those who are higher, wiser, and better 
than we are. And there is a love commingled with 
compassion because of their limitations — "straitened," 
as dear Mrs. Browning said of her little "Flush" — 
which we feel to those who are lower than we, and can 
protect from harm. We want to feel both these kinds 
of love, as well as the equal love and companion- 
ship we feel for our peers. Then our love nature, link- 
ing us as it does to our infinite and divine source, is 
developed in every direction, and becomes the ladder 
by which we can rise to greater heights. 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



LETTER THIRTY-EIGHT. 

Organization. 

September 25, 1898. 

To the Editor of The Banner of Light: 

While sitting last evening for spirit communion and 
instruction, I was suddenly startled and delighted to see 
my father's face close to me on my positive side. He 
looked very bright and earnest, and my mental attitude 
was as always when directly conscious of his presence, 
that of " Speak, for your daughter hears." 



IIS A HAPPY YEAR. 

No more came then, and I spent the rest of the even- 
ing doing nothing in particular, and retired early, feel- 
ing quite sleepy. When nearly asleep, I began to think 
on a subject that has not specially engaged my atten- 
tion. The thoughts came fast, and I will reproduce 
them in this letter, merely adding that when I see a 
spirit, followed by an influx of thoughts, I am as- 
sured that they come from that spirit, especially when 
they accord with his line of interest. In general it 
makes me sleepless to think my own thoughts after re- 
tiring. But when a spirit psychologizes me to the ex- 
tent of giving me thoughts, I at once go to sleep after 
they have ceased to flow in, and awake in the morning 
with the same impressed upon my brain. 

Is organization desirable ? The answer to this ques- 
tion depends wholly on what organization really is, and 
whether the thing alluded to accords with the true 
meaning. What it really is is to be found in our inval- 
uable companion, the unabridged dictionary. 

An organ is an instrument by which an action is per- 
formed. An organized body is made up of several dif- 
ferent organs, which cohere into a whole, while each 
one of them performs its own function. Organization 
is the act of organizing, or the state of being organized. 
Coleridge said, "What is organization but the connec- 
tion of parts in and for a whole, so that each part is at 
once end and means ? " We accept these definitions, 
illustrated as they are by the poet-philosopher, " S. 
T. C." 

According to this, if an organ has its own function, and 
if one man can do his part well only when all his organs 
work diligently and harmoniously, then it is only by 
organization that many men can work effectually to- 
ward a common end. This being so prima facie, it 
only remains for us Spiritualists to organize truly, so 
that we may accomplish the end that we desire. 

To illustrate a great error and a great truth in the 
mode of procedure, we will speak of the organization 
of the Society of Jesus and the government of the 
Tnited States. 



A HAPPY YEAR. 119 

In the former case organization exists, for from the 
general down to the lowest postulant each member 
knows where he belongs, and has his own work to do. 
The general presides over four classes or members, and 
each class has its own department of work. The pro- 
fessed have been through all the stages, have taken all 
the vows, and are able to elect a new general, if needed, 
but only from their own grade. The coadjutors assist 
the professed. The scholastics devote themselves to 
study and to teaching. The novices are preparing for 
higher work. The work designed is accomplished. The 
flaws are that the system works like a wheel within a 
wheel, excluding new and fresh blood; and that abso- 
lute obedience is enforced on each inferior by the one 
next superior to him. 

It is said that the inferior need not obey when the 
superior commands what is sinful. But as it is the gen- 
eral alone who decides what is sinful, and as the inferior 
who objects runs great risks, we see that the Society of 
Jesus is really a small papacy. Such a kind of organi- 
zation Spiritualists do not want. 

The Constitution of the United States is ideally got- 
ten up, and only needs to be lived up to to work out 
perfection. The three departments — the legislative, 
judicial and executive — have their own functions, and 
yet they play into each other just enough to prevent 
each one from becoming too rigid. The members of 
all the departments, from the President down, are 
chosen, directly or indirectly, by all the people, with 
the exception of minors, the insane, paupers, women 
and idiots. With the exception of the disability of 
women, the government is planned to be truly repre- 
sentative. To be so, each officer is actually elected by 
those who are proved to be competent to elect him. It 
would not do for any smart man who had a number of 
devoted friends to say, "Well, let us send a representa- 
tive to the House in Washington to work for our inter- 
ests. " No, no; our representatives must be actually 
chosen, each by the proper quota of the population of 



120 A HAPPY YEAR. 

his own State. If otherwise, the representative char- 
acter of the government of our country would be 
flawed. 

We, as Spiritualists, in organizing nationally for the 
Cause we hold so dear, need to be guided by the princi- 
ples and the example (when constitutional) of our own 
country. To give the acts of this body weight, it should 
be truly representative. To make it actually represen- 
tative, each delegate should be chosen by an actually 
existing, chartered, and organized body in the section 
from which he comes. Just as no representative can 
sit in Congress unless he has been actually elected in 
the ways provided by the Constitution, so no delegate 
should be allowed to sit in the deliberative sittings of 
the N. S. A. unless he has been actually chosen by an 
actually organized society. Just as no representative 
to the United States Government can be sent by any 
chance association of individuals, so should no delegate 
be sent to represent anything but a bona fide organized 
body. If our National Association be made up of prop- 
erly elected delegates, the question then becomes, "Who 
are bound to be guided by the acts of this representa- 
tive body ? Are all the Spiritualists in the United States 
thus bound ? " 

It is clear that only those Spiritualists are thus bound, 
and especially assisted in their local work, who belong 
to a local organized body, a majority of whom have 
elected a delegate to the National Assembly. 

Many Spiritualist meetings are carried on by one 
medium. He hires a hall, and appoints a doorkeeper, 
who sells our papers, and takes the dime admission fee. 
This fee is called a " silver collection" in some places. 
As our smallest silver coin is a dime, those who come know 
that is the admission fee. The medium takes care of 
the platform, and asks whom he chooses to assist him, 
or does all the work, if he so prefer. He appoints circles 
during the week. All the money cleared goes into his 
own pocket. He is responsible to no one, as he hires 
the hall himself. There were many such meetings held 



A HAPPY YEAR. 121 

last winter. They are not societies, they have no right 
to a charter, nor to membership with the National 
Spiritualists Association, nor to send delegates to it. 

To uphold our Cause, Spiritualists should organize 
for work everywhere, and not leave it all to a medium, 
whether test or speaker, who does it for a living. They 
should organize, whether they hold Sunday meetings in 
a hall or not. They can organize as Spiritualists, have 
their officers and by-laws, and meet regularly in a hall 
or in each others' houses. Such associations would be 
entitled to charters, membership with the N. S. A., and 
to send a delegate. They could work in any direction 
they chose : Sunday evening meetings, aiding the poor, 
humane work, a free reading-room, or for social pur- 
poses. Conducted by earnest Spiritualists, who work 
to advance humanity and spirituality, and not for the 
money in it, they would become influential in the com- 
munity, and thus unite with many grand spiritualistic 
societies in the country to strengthen the hands of the 
National Association, and to further the extension of 
our glorious, our angelic Cause. 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



LETTER THIRTY-NINE. 

Belief in God. 

October 2, 1898. 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light : 

Many Spiritualists declare that they do not believe 
in God. This is owing to their natural recoil from the 
notion of God, brought to a head, as it were, by John 
Calvin. That conception of God is of a hateful and 
hate-awakening being who uses his supernatural power 
to damn a race already cursed by his own want of fore- 
sight, unless they accept a way of deliverance which 
militates against even- spark of manhood, is produc- 
tive of immorality, and contradicts everv principle of 



V22 A HAPPY YEAR. 

justice. They can accept this one way of salvation, 
provided they have been elected to do so. If they 
have been so elected, it is only God that they will 
praise through eternity ; if they have not been so elec- 
ted, they will have only themselves to blame, as they 
writhe in the torments of the lost forever and ever. 

Many taught thus were so terrified by this monstros- 
ity, and are later so disgusted by it, that they say there 
is no God at all, and perhaps add that all the God there 
is is man himself. But let us see. 

All mankind, after ascending from the brute have 
had a notion of a free and conscious intelligence. They 
conceive a superior mind back of and beyond all that they 
perceive with their senses, which sets the forces of 
nature at work. No matter how imbruted the people 
may have been they have believed thus. Or rather, in- 
stead of believing thus, they have known it intuitively. 
At first, they knew it dimly and unconsciously. As 
the race developed they knew it more clearly. With 
this knowledge there was always an intuition that be- 
tween this Master Mind beyond and themselves there 
was a link. And this consciousness of a link between 
mortal man and the great intelligence which rules 
nature is the origin of all religion. 

But just at this point there came in, sooner or later, 
with all races and peoples, a marring influence. This 
hurtful influence was that of the priest ; and when the 
priesthood was organized, the influence became more 
corrupt. 

Priests have arisen, not to teach man more and better 
about his personal relations with the unseen, for each 
can learn them better for himself. It is by follow- 
ing one heavenly intuition in one's own soul that one 
can gain another, and not by following the direction 
of some one else because he is a priest, or a clergyman, 
or a bishop, or a pastor, or an evangelist, or a Sunday- 
school teacher. But, among all people and in all ages, 
priests of some sort arose and claimed that they, and 
they alone, had all knowledge and all commands that 



A HAPPY YEAR. 123 

divine intelligence wished to communicate to mortals. 

The object of the priest was two-fold. One object 
was to have an assured and most comfortable means of 
support, and the other was to control mankind. They 
soon found that they could attain those objects more 
effectually by organizing into a hierarchy; and where 
they succeeded in combining what they called religion 
with the government, their power became still greater. • 
The secular arm was combined with the arm of the 
church, and no one must speak a word against this 
double team, on pain of destruction. 

Of course we realize and admit that there were al- 
ways some humane and humble-minded priests who 
worked for the good of their charge, but these were in 
the minority, were laughed at by the worldly-wise ones, 
and were not able to assert themselves effectually, on 
the principle that devils ' ' rush in where angels fear to 
tread." 

Though Milton had a natural bias toward prelacy, he 
administered many scathing rebukes to the unfaithful 
guides who did not feed the sheep, and threatened them 
with that " two-handed engine " which stood ready " to 
smite once, and smite no more. " 

In all ages priests have interfered between the soul 
of man and God. In the old days, my mates and I 
could not be sure that we were Christians unless some 
minister should hear us relate the exercises of our 
minds, and tell us that we had gone safely through the 
door. To be really sure, we must relate them to the 
church at the convenant meeting, be probed by the 
questions of the senior deacons, and be voted to be 
worthy of membership while we were secluded in an- 
other room. After that we were baptized. 

Never shall I forget my distress of mind the evening 
after I had gone through all this. I had related my ex- 
perience to the church, had been accepted, had been 
baptized, and had partaken for the first time of the 
Lord's supper. Everybody told me I was all right, and 
yet unutterable gloom settled down on my soul, and 



124 A HAPPY YEAR. 

penetrated all its recesses that very night. That gloom 
clung ever to me until I swung clear from all churches, 
all priests, all creeds, all Bibles, and learned how 

" In secret silence of the mind, 
My heaven, and there, my God, to find." 

The soul and God, that is enough. The intermed- 
dling of any other soul is officious. A human being to 
mediate between the soul and its Infinite parent is 
folly. To make a human being into a mediator between 
God and the whole of mankind, and then set him on a 
throne by the side of God, is idolatry. 

It is all this blasphemy, all this idolatry, all these 
paraphernalia, all this attempt to bind the soul of man 
in chains, by the fear of the church or the priest and 
the desire to be and do like the rest, that have driven 
some persons, otherwise intelligent, into atheism. If 
any of us have sunk into that gulf, through the recoil 
from the Jewish Jehovah or the God of Calvin, or the 
tyranny of the priesthood, let us endeavor to rise there- 
from. 

An old Hebrew medium said it was only the fool who 
says there is no God, and in that day he only said it 
only in his heart. Of course the tutelary spirits of 
Abraham and Moses and Jesus are not God. Jesus made 
a plain distinction (it seems plain to us) between 
his father, his controlling spirit who was greater than he 
was, and with whom he was one, and "God who is 
spirit." 

Many think with us that beings less than infinite 
created worlds ( — expressed on pages 128 and 129 of 
"The Bridges Between Two Worlds") and reason 
makes us know that Infinite Intelligence is beyond all 
such "gods " and " world builders," and just as far be- 
yond as infinity goes beyond the finite. These finite 
beings work according to the rules of geometry: the 
infinite is geometry. The finite use already existing 
atoms in their operations; the infinite expresses itself 
eternally by an infinite number of atoms. 



A HAPPY YEAR. 125 

Mr. Dawbarn makes the clear-headed and rational 
statement that matter, force, and intelligence are all the 
universe; and that every single atom has the three in 
it. We wholly agree with him, and think moreover, 
that the intelligence in each and every atom is a portion 
of that infinite intelligence which deep and reverent 
souls acknowledge, whether the name employed be God, 
Allah, Jehovah, Oromasdes, Om, or Brahm. 

After the invention of the telescope and the discovery 
of the Copernican laws had immensely widened the 
human outlook, a poet said, " the undevout astronomer 
is mad." In view of the psychological discoveries of 
the present century, which are after all but pigmy steps 
compared with the mighty strides that are to come, may 
we not say with still more truth, " the undevout phil- 
osopher is mad." The " half -gods " build worlds ac- 
cording to the mathematics that regulate the relations 
of worlds and of systems of worlds. To the infinite 
mind these relations that seem complicated to them are 
an open book. In a superb sense, " He is the form." 
Shall puny man fail to adore infinite intelligence ? He 
can stretch his intellect to the utmost in studying its 
works. Let him also use all his spiritual powers in un- 
ceasing adoration. 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



126 A HAPPY YEAR 



LETTER FORTY. 

My Morning Glories. 

October 10, 1898. 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light : 

For many years it has made me sad to see the first 
golden rod swing* its unique spray of little yellow bells. 
The sadness came because the appearance of the golden 
rod showed that summer was over, and the long, cold, 
dreary winter was not far away. Especially was it so 
with me in Minnesota, where the summers are shorter 
and fiercer and the winters longer and far colder than 
in New England. The golden rod seems less sad this 
year than in the past, probably because we must all 
rejoice that this peculiar summer is ended, and also be- 
cause I found a winter in mild New Jersey less distress- 
ing than in high latitudes or along the Eastern sea 
coast. 

But life must wane, or rather its manifestations de- 
crease, as the season advances, and we are reminded of 
the beautiful name given to our home beyond "God's 
ether blue," the " Summerland. " 

Life is unending, and we think we are right in calling 
it the primal cause; but its manifestations are regu- 
lated by certain conditions. These conditions are of 
course light, air, moisture, and heat. If all these are 
provided, we have a beautiful world, unless we be 
penned up by city walls. If one of these conditions be 
wanting, animal and vegetable life is hampered, and 
what is hampered decreases in beauty. 

In my back-yard many morning glories sprang up 
from seeds that were sown long before I came to live 
in New Jersey. I transplanted several, and placed 
them with others that had started beneath my study 
window. I did it because it seemed too bad to let the 
little darlings perish amid the thrifty weeds, not realiz- 



A HAPPY YEAR. 127 

ing how they would reward my care. I put in little 
stakes, and fastened the strings above the cellar win- 
dow. The puppy pulled up the stakes, and chewed up 
the leaves, so I put a little chicken wire to ward off the 
persistent and comical marauder. 

They had plenty of air, water, sunlight, sunheat, and 
something to cling to. They soon reached the top of 
the cellar window, and put out long, tender, and alto- 
gether graceful shoots, and the strings were lengthened 
to the study window. When they reached there they 
began to bloom. The colors are royal purple, lavender, 
red, pink, and white with delicate purple streaks in each 
lobe, painted by nature's unerring pencil. On a bright 
morning they are a mass of bloom, and even when the 
glowing sun has shriveled their delicac)^, the tender 
green sprays of leafage deck the window without dark- 
ening it, and make me happy every time I look at them. 

The honeysuckle is fragrant, but its mode of climb- 
ing is less graceful than that of the morning glory. Its 
positive stem turns from left to right, and each new 
shoot stands out almost as rectangularly as that of a 
baby-oak. But the morning glory turns from right to 
left, and each shoot grows in a tender curve, that 
makes it a thing of beauty and a joy forever. And, 
except the bloom itself, what is prettier than the un- 
opened bud? 

Some object to morning glories that they are too 
short-lived. They would not be so ethereally beautiful 
if they lasted longer. Dahlias and gladioli out-last 
them ; but compare the sword-like stiffness of the leaves 
and flower-spike of a gladiolus, and the coarse, flaunt- 
ing, round dahlia, with the graceful shape, the delicate 
bloom, and the evanescent transparency of the morning 
glory. 

In view from my kitchen window is another plant of 
the same species. While getting breakfast I always 
look to see the condition of its royal blooms, for this is 
the rich purple. Though but one plant, it looks like 
ten, and I have seen more than thirty "glories" at 
once. 



128 A HAPPY YEAR. 

This one sewed itself at the root of an old stump. I 
disregarded it at first, and the puppy trod it down as if 
it were the stubble of the field. But it would grow and 
threw out so many thrifty shoots that I put a nail in 
the stump, and tied a strong cord to the top of the 
clothes-pole. All the shoots went up it, twisted in wild 
confusion together, and the sag of the rope gives such 
a graceful curve to the whole mass. I watered it occa- 
sionally, and the next I knew was the admiration of the 
neighbors for that beautiful morning glory. 

The shoots at the top of the clothes-pole have noth- 
ing to cling to, and have thrown themselves out in the 
most happy-go-lucky manner. But this morning I was 
amazed to see a number of shoots twisted together, and 
the whole pointing straight up to the sky. It did not 
sway at all, and I thought of looking about the yard for 
a yogi, and a rope coming down moored fast to some 
sure support in the sky. But I saw no yogi, and sat 
looking and wondering to see it stand so straight. 

After a little the delicate top began to sway and to 
curl, and later the whole mass gracefully bent, as if it 
were tired of holding up so long. Their almost human 
succumbing to physical weakness makes me think of a 
scene in Faust which I saw in Germany in 1877. The 
whole of the play was presented, for the first time 
since Goethe wrote it, in Leipsic the year before; and, 
fortunately for me, it was reproduced in Hanover dur- 
ing the three months I spent there. The scene the 
weary morning glories make me think of is this: 

Mephistopheles made a beautiful vision appear before 
the eyes of the sleeping Faust. Some twenty little girls 
stood on a pyramid of flowers, clasping each other's 
hands. On the very point of the pyramid stood a 
lovely little three-year-old child, with her arms stretched 
upwards. The audience was in an ecstacy. The children 
were so motionless that I for one could not tell whether 
they were real or made of wax. It was encored, and 
yet again did we drink in its beauty. The third time, 
just before the curtain fell, I saw the tired arms of the 



A HAPPY YEAR. 129 

topmost tot droop; and then I knew that it was some 
German mother's darling, who should have been sleep- 
ing in her crib several hours before. 

I think that early this morning these morning glory- 
shoots got so tired of looking for something to cling to, 
that they made a league together that they would hold 
each other up, if there was no other way. Each one 
said: "If you will hold me up, I will hold you up." 
And so the six made out to stand up straight towards 
the clear blue sky. But, like the little German child, 
they are tired now and are bending down, but alto- 
gether, and of course all twisted the same way. 

Alive ? Of course they are alive. If they were not, 
we should not have them in the spirit-land. And they 
feel pain from a rough grasp, and a worse pain when 
rudely torn from the parent stem. 

One dewy morning I took an early walk in the suburbs 
of Worcester. I came to a by-path, and there lay a 
quantity of flowers that had been torn from some flower- 
ing tree. The branches had been roughly broken, and 
the hands that did the deed belonged to vandals who 
did not want the flowers. They broke them off and 
dashed them to the ground. I felt so sorry for them, 
and for the maimed parent tree. I could not restore 
them and make them live again ; but I took each spray 
up tenderly and laid it in the dewy .grass, where it 
would not be trodden on, and where its life could pass 
out peacefully. 

I think we ought to teach children not to pluck flowers 
too ruthlessly. They should learn to pluck them care- 
fully, and only those that they really want to carry to 
mamma, who was too busy to walk with them, to the 
sick playmate or feeble and aged friend, or to deck the 
tea table and make the sitting room look pretty for papa 
when he comes home tired. They should learn not to 
seize them in masses and then throw them away. 

I suppose when this letter is done I shall put the lad- 
der against the roof of the back porch, and rig a cord 
from the top of the clothes pole to the corner of the 



130 A HAPPY YEAR. 

roof, so that these aspiring and well-nigh discouraged 
morning glories can still climb. By the time they reach 
the roof of the porch the frost will come, and these 
present flowers will bloom in spirit-land, for the happy 
children there, and their little seeds will give us new 
blooming plants after the winter has passed away. 
Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



LETTER FORTY-ONE. 

" Our Ancestors." 

October 14, 1898. 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light: 

Some of our readers may be familiar with John P. 
Cooke's very spiritual brochures entitled "God" and 
''The Only God." The title page of the latter bears 
two pictures called " Whence " and " Whither." The 
first represents the primitive man and woman sheltered 
in a forest. The second shows two forms rising from 
a rocky coast by a wide ocean on mother earth. The 
smaller form is a just arisen spirit, who stretches one 
hand toward the glory beyond on which his gaze is 
fixed. He is borne upward by a strong angel whose 
feet have just left the rocky coast. Both forms are 
bathed in light which comes down from the celestial 
realm. This picture is beautiful, and is similar to 
others that we have seen. 

It is with the first picture, called " Whence," that we 
have to do to-day. It is a copy of a wonderful painting 
by Gabriel Max, entitled, "Our Ancestors." It im- 
presses one deeply at the first glance, and the more one 
ponders it the more is he struck by the originality and 
the force of the artist's conception. We will try to de- 
scribe it. 

Sitting on the ground, with her face directly towards 
us, is this primitive woman, this Eve we may call her, 
as pictured in the latter part of the nineteenth century. 



A HAPPY YEAR. 131 

Her long, light hair, parted in the middle, falls an un- 
tended mass upon her shoulders. Her lower limbs are 
slightly crossed, and one sees at a glance the thumb- 
like character of the great toe of the right foot. This 
early woman of the primitive wilds used her feet for 
grasping as well as her hands, when it suited her con- 
venience to do so. Held in her arms, as she sits at 
ease on the ground, is her infant. All we see of him 
is his little back, which she tenderly holds, and a part 
of one round arm. He is nursing, and, as with our 
own babies at such a time, his mind holds no other 
thought. 

Let us now return to this woman's face. Her fea- 
tures are large and coarse, if compared with the spark- 
ling American type or the rare delicacy of a beautiful 
Pole. But it is not the face of an animal. Long, with 
its noble forehead half hidden by the hair, it will de- 
velop into powerful beauty with a few thousand years. 
In fact, some of our women a few years ago, with their 
matted brush of hair covering the forehead to the very 
eyebrows, looked more like animals than does this free- 
born creature of the woods. Determination, foresight, 
courage, are on her features. But it is in looking into 
her intense and human eyes that we see her soul. Her 
posture, her expression, her eyes, bespeak one thought, 
it is this: "Nothing shall harm my little child." Let 
danger come, and that form, alert in its ease, will be 
electrified into violent and effective action; and the 
fierce quadrupeds of the forest will slink away from this 
mother at bay. 

But this woman is not alone. There are two in this 
interesting duet, and there are but two, for they are 
monogamists ; and though she may seem somewhat coarse 
to the present civilization, yet it was for her delicacy, 
for her " sweet, attractive grace," that she was chosen, 
and perhaps fought for, by this powerful, primitive 
man. 

We see his face and his form in profile. For this 
reason he seems at first more brutish than the woman. 



132 * A HAPPY YEAR. 

She looks somewhat naked, excepting her hair. His 
skin is so toughened by exposure and hardships that it 
looks like a carefully -fitted hide. His abdomen pro- 
trudes, as if he had just broken most plentifully the 
fast of days. That is probably the case. These ancestors 
of ours did not have five meals a day, like theGermans; 
nor four meals a day like the English ; nor even the 
American breakfast, dinner, and supper. They es- 
teemed themselves fortunate if they had a good square 
meal in two or three days, with occasional lunches of 
a fish or a bird, and little tidbits thrown in of snails 
and locusts. 

Our ancestors were not vegetarians, but meat-eaters. 
Their posterity made wild fruit delicious by cultivation ; 
but while primitive man could stay his hunger, in case 
of necessity, on shoots of trees and acorns and other 
nuts, yet he craved flesh, and could not be content 
without it. 

In our picture, this rough but faithful fellow realized 
that his mate was not quite so strong as usual, and 
was also impeded in the chase by the little one. So 
thought for her, as well as his own empty stomach, has 
led him to make an extra effort, and it was a young 
and a remarkably toothsome primitive cow that he 
caught and killed and dragged home; and by way 
of a condiment, he fell in with a litter of little boars, 
which he took the trouble to bring along. 

They did not cook these creatures. Fricasseeing, 
roasting with truffles, the stew and even the plain broil 
were then unknown. They divided it as best they 
could with hands and feet, got at the flesh within the 
hair and the bristles, and hunger made a good sauce. 
And we may be sure that this rough fellow let his mate 
have the choicer bits, and did not quarrel with her if 
she intercepted a specially savory morsel, and put it 
into her own mouth. No doubt he thought to himself 
that she had to eat for two. 

Look at him, now that they have eaten their fill and 
are ready to rest. They are in the depth of the forest, 



A HAPPY YEAR. 133 

and she has taken shelter by a fallen tree that rests 
against some natural support. He is fearful that it 
may slip and do her harm. She knows not what he is 
doing. Her eyes look far away into space. Her only 
thought is how she loves that little thing and how she 
will kill anything that comes to hurt it. He pushes his 
weight against the fallen tree, his brawny arm is raised 
against it, his great hand pushes it, and he looks down 
at his wife and child. Tenderness and protecting love 
soften those rough features, that hide-like skin, that 
massive frame. 

How do you like this conception of those from whom 
we sprung? It differs in almost every particular from 
the one that was read to us in childhood from the sec- 
ond chapter of Genesis. This one is wholly natural, 
that had the supernatural woven in. This one follows 
the course of nature, which is a constant development 
from lower to a little higher. That one made a perfect 
man at one jump out of the dust of the ground, and a 
woman out of a rib taken from the man's side. And 
this unscientific mode of procedure has been accepted as 
the truth for thousands and thousands of years. In 
this one, the man and woman can scarcely talk, for 
language is rudimentary at first, and develops as modes 
of living and modes of thinking become more complex. 
In that, Adam and Eve talked with inbred ease, and 
even that bad snake, whom Goethe mischievously calls 
u our auntie," can talk too. Goddess of reason, where 
are we? Is this a fairy story for unreasoning three-year 
olds, or is this supposed to be sacred history? And 
God talked too, and with a voice that awoke corres- 
ponding vibrations in the tympana of Adam's ears, and 
God was walking in the garden in the cool of the day. 
He was probably " materialized." 

And how disgracefully and selfishly this perfect man 
in the Bible, fresh from the hands of his Creator, be- 
haved! He was quite ready to eat the apples which 
Eve generously shared with him; and then, when he 
found he was to be blamed for doing so, he lays it onto 



134 A HAPPY YEAR. 

her, and even hints that God himself is also to blame. 
" The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she 
gave me, and I did eat! " Poor fellow! Differing from 
some of the men of this generation, he did not dare to 
refuse when it was offered to him. Well, they were all 
punished severely, and even that remarkably endowed 
snake was condemned to eat dust all the rest of his life. 

We confess to liking Mr. Max's primitive man much 
better than the one in "The Bible." Adam was sup- 
posed to be created perfect, and proved himself to 
be a selfish coward. Primitive man in our picture 
labored hard, protected his wife, did the best he knew 
how in every way, and bequeathed his good qualities 
to his descendants. Adam had everything done for 
him, and had not sense enough to avoid doing the one 
thing that his patron had told him not to do; his oldest 
son became a murderer, while Abel put on the airs of a 
saint and talked so aggravatingly to Cain that he was 
killed for it. Adam's posterity turned out so badly 
that God exterminated all of them by a flood except 
the family of Noah, who was supposed to be saved on 
account of his goodness, but acted so indecently that 
we shall drop the subject on the spot. 

God speaks to man, but not by such crude tales. The 
all-inclusive Soul from which we sprung speaks to you, 
to me, not by an audible voice, but by an influx of just 
as much reason, wisdom and love as we are now fitted 
to crave. This asking is not done by a direct appeal 
to the infinite. It is done by emptying the soul of all 
conflicting elements and opening it to heavenly influ- 
ence. So asking, we shall receive. 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



A HAPPY YEAR. 135 



LETTER FORTY-TWO. 

The Soul Expressed by the Physical 

Form. 

October 21, 1898. 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light ■ 

How is it that we often feel well acquainted with per- 
sons with whom we have never exchanged a word ? We 
meet them on the street, we do not know their names, 
nor where they live, and yet their inner nature is like 
an open book. Of one we say to overselves that. here 
is one we can trust ; and to him would we go to for aid 
if we were in sore need. Of another, we know he is 
bad, and we would deeply pity the little child who must 
call him father. 

Culture and breeding, or their lack, become manifest 
in the way the words come from a person's lips; but 
the soul stands revealed, though no word be spoken, in 
the features themselves, though in repose. An artist 
sits within, and day by day, year by year, he does his 
work. Every thought, every feeling, every wish, chisels 
something on the plastic face and the form; and these 
little marks, so fine that they are individually invisible, 
reveal clearly to those who behold the lineaments, what 
manner of man or woman dwells within. 

Many, especially the young, desire to be beautiful, 
and fancy that beauty lies solely in the tint and fresh- 
ness of the skin, in the brightness of the eyes, in the 
abundance of the hair, in the regularity of the features, 
and in the grace and ease of the carriage. Yet we can 
all recall persons who did not possess these, who had 
more lovers of their own and of the opposite sex than 
those who were acknowledged to possess more beauty. 

I well remember the attractive power possessed by a 
dear friend of my youth. Everybody, if forced to 
acknowledge the truth, said she was very " homely. " 



136 A HAPPY YEAR. 

Her complexion was bad, her eyes were small, and of 
no particular color, her mouth was large, and not well 
shaped. Her nose was very large, and, so far from 
having the dignity and character of a Roman, all one 
could say of it was that it was a large nose. And yet 
this girl had innumerable friends of both sexes, and 
many ardent lovers who did their best to win her to 
walk life's pathway by their side. The one she finally 
married had loved her as long as Jacob sought Rachel 
of old; and is a much nobler man than that old patri- 
arch. 

I had not seen my friend for many years. But a lec- 
ture engagement led me near her, and we eagerly 
brightened the old links of friendship's chain. To my 
delighted surprise, the homely girl of forty years ago 
had become a very handsome old lady. A happy mar- 
ried life, and the love of good children, who repay her 
fond care by their devotion, have made her face bloom 
with happiness, and surely no one is loved more and ad- 
mired than herself in the town where she lives. In her 
is exemplified the truth that a loving, candid, and sym- 
pathetic nature makes one more beautiful with advanc- 
ing years. 

So when I hear young people wish that they were 
beautiful, I tell them that however plain they may think 
themselves in youth, they may be sure of growing in 
beauty as old age advances. And when to kindness of 
heart is added the fine chiseling made by thought, to 
which the spiritualized soul gives an indescribable and 
a nameless grace, we have a face that the casual passer- 
by looks at again and again, and longs to know. Even 
the poor brute, tethered and hungry, feels a something 
he knows not what in the gracious presence, and turns 
his head, and follows with wishful eye, till such a one 
be out of sight. 

Which would one choose on the whole to be, as fair 
as Helen of Troy in youth, and to deteriorate into a 
querulous, selfish and loveless old age; or to be origin- 
ally plain, and yet make one's self a beautiful old man 



A HAPPY YEAR. 137 

or woman by the transforming power of benevolence, 
unselfishness, and spiritual thought ? Edmund Spen- 
ser's fine lines are in point here: 

" For of the soul the body form doth take, 
For soul is form, and doth the body make." 

We cannot, however, agree wholly with what is here 
expressed If he had said the soul has form or takes 
form, it would have been correct in our view. But we 
cannot think that soul is form. Soul is one thing; form 
and expression another. Soul is wholly immaterial. It 
is conscious, it is free ; and it uses form of greater or 
less ethereality by which to express itself. 

That the character moulds the face is shown by exam- 
ining the features of babyhood. The mother feels that 
she can recognize her own infant, and select it from a 
multitude; though there are instances on record where 
she failed to do so. But to an outsider, little babies 
have no very distinguishing features. Of course one 
would not take a dark-eyed one for one with blue eyes, 
nor a light-haired one for a dark, nor the plump, well- 
cared-for pet for the pining, half-starved waif. They 
all have an innocent look, and when they smile they 
have the tranquil smile that the angels wear. 

But as months and years roll on, there comes a change. 
The features of each one become individualized; and it 
could only be a very indifferent person who could take 
one four-year-old for another. The forehead develops 
with a growing intellect or is clouded by a sluggish 
brain; the eyes look brightly into our own, rove with 
unthinking gaze over distant objects, or sullenly seek 
the ground; the nose becomes a distinct feature; the 
mouth, little revealer of the inner character, is wreathed 
in loving smiles, is drawn down with discontent, or is 
closed firmly, showing the resolute and undaunted na- 
ture of the soul within. This process goes on year by 
year, until the skilful observer need only look at a per- 
son's face to know what manner of man he is. 



138 A HAPPY YEAR. 

The form, as well as the face, is a great revealer. I 
had a friend who said she could tell the character of a 
stranger by looking at his back while he was walking. 
The gait, the mode of standing, the attitude while at 
work, the voice, the penmanship, all — all tell the stuff 
of which we are made within. 

Look at the next aged person you see in the street car. 
Study the features, note the atmosphere of him or her, 
get into spiritual rapport with the person's inner nature. 
And what you do to another, others will do to you; and, 
though they may not know who you are, they can judge 
unerringly what you are. 

Our physical self thus becomes open to the searchings 
of the physical eyes of others. Still, wrong inferences 
are sometimes drawn because of the complicated nature 
of the being within, as well as from the clumsiness of 
the flesh itself. But the disembodied ones who walk 
by our side make no mistakes. They do not look at our 
fleshly body, but with spirit-vision look at our spirit- 
form. Our fleeting thoughts, feelings, desires, and 
resolutions are all expressed there. 

It will be the same when we pass entirely out of the 
fleshly body. There will be no need of any further re- 
search, for the disembodied will see us as we are. And 
if we still delude ourselves in that new condition by 
thinking that we are better, kinder, and wiser than we 
are, we shall soon know our true status by seeing what 
kind of spirits are attracted into the atmosphere which 
has been formed about us by our acts while still in the 
earthly body. 

How sad it would be to find ourselves in the spirit- 
world, and yet not fit to be a companion with the re- 
vered father, the idolized mother, or the precious little 
child who left us long before and has grown up in the 
society of angels ! 

But in such a case our sadness will give birth to our 
longing to improve, and that longing will open the door 
to their assistance; and instead of sitting in helpless des- 
pair, we shall raise our hands to them, and begin to 



A HAPPY YEAR. 139 

walk in the pathway which we shall, however, wish 
that we had begun to pursue while still in the earthly 
body. 

Thank the powers that be that ordained it thus, and 
thank the spirits bright who have told us that it is so, 
we need never sit down in gloomy discouragement. 
Whether here or there, there is no impassable gulf be- 
tween us and the brightness beyond. We may walk, 
we may rise, we may climb, we may fly, and rejoice 
forever in the boon of endless existence. 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



LETTER FORTY-THREE. 

Sadness Driven Away by a Thought 
Journey. 

October 29, 1898. 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light : 

How beautiful the thought that whatever may be the 
anxieties and the perplexities of our earthly life, we can 
by resolute effort enter into the closet of our inner 
soul, shut to the door against carking care, and, by com- 
munion with the God within, reach communion with 
god-like souls whose companionship we crave. Such 
has been my experience of late, and at the present 
hour. 

Besides carking care, which falls on me as it does 
on so many others in our dear country, other troubles, 
arising from my espousal of Spiritualism, are also to 
the front. For the outside world I care not; but when 
the opposition of those to whom I was once dear, and 
who continue to be very dear to me, becomes more 
apparent than usual, it always cuts deeply. One would 
fancy that my course of life since espousing this glorious 
Cause would begin to mitigate this contempt of me, but 
no : nothing can mitigate this bitter, bitter prejudice 



140 A HAPPY YEAR. 

against one who does not adhere to the old orthodoxy, 
nor the scornful criticism, because I claim to know that 
the so-called dead are my helpers, my supporters, and 
my instructors. 

So when to-day came, knowing that if I did not write 
to-day there would be a break in the letters that I have 
so assiduously provided for the Banner of Light for 
nearly a year, and finding myself physically exhausted 
and mentally wearied, with no subject in my mind and 
no thought in my brain. I made my preparations, sat 
down to write, and have written a little bit out of my 
own heart. 

As always, in times of stress like this, I gratefully 
and confidingly put my physical and spiritual body in 
vibration with the magnetic currents of the solar system, 
and my soul in harmony with pure spirits in the name 
of our common Source. At once came those magnetic 
thrills and the inner consciousness of immortal pres- 
ences, and my drooping spirit was revived, like the 
thirsty florets who have almost gasped for life through 
a torrid day, but are revived by the cooling shower of 
evening. 

I said I gratefully went through my harmonizing pro- 
cess, for my gratitude is continuous and expansive for 
being led into this safe and profitable path so soon after 
accepting Spiritualism. As to confiding in it, I may well 
do so, for never yet has it failed to put me into rapport 
with the angel- world when taken with attention. 

We may know that these same magnetic currents per- 
vade the whole solar system for this reason. As we 
have stated elsewhere, electricity is a force, while mag- 
netism is a condition. A non-magnetic bar of iron 
becomes magnetized by being placed within a coil of 
wires, through which an electric current is passing. In 
the same way, the earth is always a magnet, owing to 
the currents of electricity that pass around it from its 
being turned upon its axis. 

As the earth turns on its axis in the same way that it 
turns around the sun, as the moon turns on its axis and 



A HAPPY YEAR. 141 

once around the earth in a lunar month in the same way, 
as every planet with its attendant moon and rings turns 
the same way, and as the sun itself revolves on its stu- 
pendous axis of eight hundred and fifty thousand miles 
in the same general direction, we see that the electric 
currents of every member of the mighty whole are sim- 
ilar, and the resulting magnetized conditions of each 
and every orb of our system are all in pure harmony. 

Of course there is variety in this harmony. Our 
ecliptic inclines to our equinoctial enough to make a 
variety in our seasons that is unknown in Jupiter. But 
this variation must be within certain limits, and those 
comets that violate the general law of the system plunge 
off into space and are never heard of again. 

It pleases me to put my outer and my inner body in 
harmony with these mighty currents, and my soul in 
harmony with the Soul of the infinite universe, then to 
lie- down on my bed with my head toward the north, or 
negative, pole of the magnet, and to lie there and think 
far into space. My thought takes in " the earth's green 
pomp spinning round" (an imperfect rendition of 
Goethe's superbly simple line: 

" Dreht sich umher der Erde Pracht"). 

Then I think on into the successive stages of our own 
spirit- wo rid, expanding into inconceivable ethereality, 
and yet obedient with its earth nucleus to the electric, 
vortical sweep and the resulting magnetized condition. 
Then I think on into that still finer ether that occupies 
the space between the spirit-worlds of the different 
planets. I do not think toward the sun, the physical 
storehouse of electrical energy But I think on to Mars, 
do not stop at the asteroids (melancholy witnesses, per- 
haps, of the triumph of democracy over aristocracy in 
the formation of the planet between Mars and Jupiter); 
then I think of the majestic Jupiter and the ringed 
Saturn and quiet Uranus, and lonely Neptune, 2,800,- 
000,000 miles from the sun. Then I think of still more 
distant comets, and am amazed at the mighty force 



142 A HAPPY YEAR. 

which holds many of them to their periodical journeys 
around the sun. The address of the ' ' Ettrick Shep- 
herd " to the comet of 1811 comes to my mind, and I 
recall one of the stanzas: 

"On thy rapid prow to glide, 

To sail the boundless skies with thee, 
And plough the twinkling stars aside, 
Like foam-bells on a tranquil sea ! " 

and wish that I could recall the rest. 

Then, as thought has no seeming limit, I think on of 
other systems of worlds, of double suns of complemen- 
tary tints revolving around each other, each with its own 
retinue of planets, and am dazed at the mathematics 
involved in keeping them all aright, far transcending 
the geometrical problems involved in our own system 
with its single sun. 

I think, too, of our sun as being a subordinate member 
of that nebula we call the Milky Way, as is proved by 
our seeing it as a ring around us, instead of viewing it 
as a whole, as we view the nebula in Andromeda. 

Then I think of Thoreau and his bright and charac- 
teristic reply to some one who said to him: "Mr. 
Thoreau, I should think you would be lonely, living out 
here in the woods by yourself." "Lonely," said he, 
"how can I feel lonely ? Is not our sun in the Milky 
Way ? " 

So I come back to earth and Walden Pond and the 
sages of Concord and the peerless Emerson, fittingly 
called St. Ralph. Murmuring "God bless him, wher- 
ever he may be," I fall asleep. 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



A HAPPY YEAR. 143 

LETTER FORTY-FOUR. 

Opinions regarding Jesus. 

November 3, 1898. 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light: 

Some twenty-five years ago I heard James Freeman 
Clarke illustrate the presentation of Jesus of Nazareth 
by the four Evangelists in the following manner. He 
said it was like putting Jesus in the centre of four mir- 
rors that were placed around him. The reflection in 
each mirror was a different one, and yet the union of 
the four showed him as he was. 

As an illustration, it was good, and, had all four been 
written by eye-witnesses while their subject stillwalked 
the earth, the picture might have been as true as other 
pictures of famous men. But when we recollect that the 
two written soon after his resurrection give a simple 
narration of facts; that the third, written perhaps thirty 
years later, brings out his sacrificial nature, which 
doctrine had meantime become a part of Christianity; 
and that the fourth, written generations after the 
others, presents the dogma of incarnate deity, which had 
in the meantime been incorporated by many into the 
body of doctrine, we see that Mr. Clarke's illustration 
was not founded on the facts of the case. 

Still, this illustration of Jesus and the four mirrors is 
applicable to many a subject which occupies the 
human mind, and we are sometimes led with Pilate of 
old to ask. " What is truth ? " 

No character has been more discussed than that of 
Christ. Those about him said, " Never man spake like 
this man," recognizing him as a man among men. 
Later, that he was an incarnate God came to be sur- 
mised, and this doctrine was adopted as an article of 
church doctrine by the first Nicean Council in 325, A.D. 
This was emphasized at the Council of Chalcedon in 451, 
which also proclaimed Mary to be " the mother of 



144 A HAPPY YEAR. 

God," in opposition to Nestorius, who claimed her to be 
only the mother of his human nature. The same was 
reiterated at Constantinople in 553. 

From this time the diety of Jesus has held sway in 
the Christian Church, and was disputed only by those 
Who denied the Bible to be the word of God, like Vol- 
taire and Frederic the Great. 

In our century, in which human reason, blunted and 
stunted in previous ages, has burst into bloom and the 
" higher criticism " has waxed stronger and stronger, 
the metaphysical doubts of German thinkers, the 
aggressive efforts of French skeptics, and the publica- 
tion of such works as Strauss's and Renan's lives of 
Jesus, have reduced the doctrine of an incarnate deity 
to a dogma, held to only by the most conservative 
adherents to the old Orthodoxy. 

Meanwhile Spiritualism has been throwing a new 
light into many an obscure and tangled nook in the 
records of the past. It has shown that some of the 
most extraordinary events recorded in the Hebrew 
Bible are duplicated by mediums of modern times, and 
are thus divested of all supernatural quality. It has 
shown that Socrates derived his power from his con- 
sciousness of a guiding spirit, whose voice he heard. 
It has shown that Joan of Arc was a clairvoyant and a 
clairaudient medium, and accomplished the liberation 
of France through the assistance of decarnate and 
patriotic Frenchmen. It has shown that Mohammed 
was a trance medium, instead of an epileptic impostor. 
It has shown that the world's greatest poets, orators, 
artists, and inventors were susceptible to spirit influ- 
ence, and that genius is itself an extraordinary phase 
of mediumship, working on a highly endowed brain. 

We expect Buddhists and Taoists to take but scant 
interest in the assumption that Jesus of Nazareth was 
an incarnated God. But the question is of considerable 
interest to those who live within the pale of Christen- 
dom, and especially those of us who were brought up 
to worship him, and to pray to him, exactly as if he 
were indeed and in truth "very God of very God.' 



A HAPPY YEAR. 145 

And our church friends, too, desire to know what we 
think that our spirit-friends have to say of Jesus. 

One would naturally suppose that we who claim to 
be in intelligent communication with the spirit-world 
could now get something definite, harmonious and 
integral regarding Jesus. Did he ever live at all ? 
Was he Appollonius of Tyana ? Was there anything 
extraordinary about his birth ? Was he an incarnation 
of " God over all blessed forever" ? Was he the God of 
this planet ? Have any spirits ever met him, and 
talked with him ? Does he ever control mediums ? 
What does he say about the four gospels ? Had he in 
any sense more of the divine nature than inheres in all 
human beings ? Was he just a great healing medium ? 

To any and all of these questions we receive through 
various mediums the most contradictory answers. In 
fact, there seems to be nearly as many answers as med- 
iums. Robert Dale Owen's lovely spirit friend, 
"Violet" says that Jesus was born from a perfectly 
pure Jewish virgin. The medium through whom 
k ' Antiquity Unveiled " was given to mortals, under the 
supervision of the learned and sincere J. M. Roberts, 
says no such man as Jesus ever lived, and has com- 
munications from scores of spirits never heard of in 
America, though said to be in obscure and ancient 
European encyclopaedias. Dr. J. R. Buchanan on the 
other hand says he has talked with Jesus and the apos- 
tels, and that they are bona fide individuals. 

A very lovely medium in Providence, R. I., now in 
spirit, claimed that she was the scribe of Jesus, Mary, 
Joseph, and many other friends of the Nazarene. She 
saw the words printed in electric light, and wrote 
exactly what she saw. In her book, " The Autobiog- 
raphy of Jesus of Nazareth," he claims to be a mere 
man, a meek, ailing, hunch-backed man, but strong 
when controlled by Leiah, once King of Arabia, whom 
he calls his father, though Joseph and Mary were his 
real father and mother. 

Some mediums teach that one special spirit, god of 
this planet, is incarnated once in about six hundre 



146 A HAPPY YEAR. 

years. He was Confucius, he was Jesus, he was 
Mohammed, seems not to have manifested in the thir- 
teenth century (unless Dante were he), but will now 
soon appear. 

In all these conflicting accounts'what are we to be- 
lieve ? I say, nothing at all, and for two reasons. One 
reason is, that what comes through mediums, or to us 
personally as individual spirits, is so tinctured by their 
or our previous opinions and prejudices, hereditary 
biases and spiritual affinities, that it is not very relia- 
ble regarding personalities and facts that have to do 
with past existence on the earth planet. 

The other reason is, that it is not what we believe that 
matters, it what we do. It matters little to us 
whether Jesus existed personally or not, provided we 
live as purely and as lovingly as he is said to have 
done. It matters not whether he was immaculately 
conceived; but it matters whether we live immaculately 
ourselves. Are we to-day humane, kind, truthful, 
brave, industrious and reverent? If so, we are prepar- 
ing to be more so to morrow, 

" And better thence again, and better still, 
In infinite progression." 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



LETTER FORTY-FIVE. 

A Tolerant Spirit. 

November 10, 1898. 

To the Editor of The Banner of Light : 

Before taking up the subject of this letter, I will 
speak of a personal matter that will be omitted if de- 
ferred. As I say nothing of my sight, and keep up 
these weekly letters for The Banner, and as we nat- 
urally hope for the well being of our friends, it is sup- 
posed that my eyes are all right and give me no more 
trouble. Alas ! it is not so. 



A HAPPY YEAR. 147 

My right eye, operated on in New York, is all right; 
but the left eye becomes worse, and gives me constant 
pain when I use the good one for reading, writing, or 
sewing. I have had lens after lens made for it. Each 
does well for a time, but in a few weeks the ball of the 
eye has altered again and I cannot see. I cannot al- 
ways have new lenses made, and now I cannot see one 
word with this eye; and its constant effort to see, when 
I use the other, is what gives the pain; and an oculist 
will understand why, when I add that its iris is incar- 
cerated. The constant change in form is the result of 
the escape of so much of the vitreous, when the wound 
broke open after the operation in Worcester. Neither 
of these conditions can be removed by art. 

It seemed strange to many that Gladstone, so devoted 
to the interests of the Church of England, to which he 
belonged, should hold those religious views that belong 
to the Unitarians and the Semites, and that he was in 
heart a deist rather than a Christian. It seems stranger 
on this side of ihe water, where we are indoctrinated 
with the thought of a complete separation between the 
church and the government. But not so with our Brit- 
ish cousins. The union between the church and the 
State over there makes many a man conventionally ac- 
cord with the church, while his real opinions are quite 
variant therefrom. Ever since Henry the Eighth put 
himself at the head of the church instead of the Pope, 
so far as England was concerned, each reigning king 
and queen occupies that position, and of course sub- 
scribes wholly to all its tenets in public life. 

Long ago, when I believed in the inspiration by God 
of the whole Bible, which states quite clearly immer- 
sion and believers' baptism, I was simple enough to 
wonder what a king of England could do if he should 
become a convert to the views of Calvinistic Baptists. 
If he should be immersed and believe in close commu- 
nion, what would become of his headship over the 
Church of England ? But, in later years, it became 
easy to see that this perfunctory head could in heart 
adopt any religious faith in the world, yea, be even an 



148 A HAPPY YEAR. 

atheist, and yet serenely pose, by virtue of his sover- 
eignty, as the head of the Established Church of Eng- 
land. On this same principle, Gladstone could partake 
of the eucharist and yet adopt the views of an orthodox 
Jew. 

And among all the sects in Christendom there is 
hardly one so tolerant of the religious views of others 
as are the Jews. It has not been their habit to prose- 
lyte, even from the early individualization of the race. 
Ancient Israel believed in the God of the Jews, and 
contentedly let their neighbors go on worshiping their 
own gods. While they thought it idolatry if one of 
their own race adored a foreign idol, they were willing 
that other races should worship Baal and Osiris, Astarte 
and Chemosh, at their pleasure. This Jewish principle 
is expressed by both instance and precept in the Old 
Testament. 

The other day, while looking up some passages in 
the sacred writings of the Jews, I came across this in 
Micah. This forcible and earnest seer is describing the 
future glory when war will be unknown, and each man 
shall sit in safety under his own fig tree. Recognizing 
that intolerance has caused much bloodshed, he goes on 
to say: " For all people will walk everyone in the name 
of his god, and we will walk in the name of the Lord 
our God." 

I was greatly struck by the open religious toleration 
so plainly inculcated by this ancient Jew; and noted 
well that the Christian church, while advocating the 
peace spoken of in the third verse, yet utterly ignores 
the tolerant views given in the context, and goes to 
work to induce other nations to discard their own 
deities. and to adopt that form of idolatry so prevalent 
in the Christian church of to-day. 

Lessing's drama, " Nathan the Wise," has three prin- 
cipal characters: Nathan, a Jew; Saladin, a Moham- 
medan; and the Templar, a Christian. In the play oc- 
curs the apt and beautiful story of the ring, of which I 
will give a synopsis. 



A HAPPY YEAR. 149 1 

A king possessed a priceless ring, which made its 
owner beloved by God and man. Having three sons 
equally dear to him, and not knowing what else to do, 
he had two more rings made exactly like the first, gave 
one to each son, and died. Disputes arose as to which 
had the true ring. These continued till a wise judge 
arose, who said: " Let each one of you deem his own 
true, and make it true by displaying the most gentle- 
ness, forbearance, charity, and heartfelt resignation to 
God's will. If after thousands of years these virtues 
appear in your posterity, perhaps a wiser judge than I 
can decide which had the true ring." 

By this tale did Nathan, the wise Jew, teach Saladin 
and the Templar to try to settle by the result on their 
posterity which of the three religions was the true one. 
The story, borrowed from the storehouse of Boccaccio, 
illustrates Lessing's views of religious tolerance, and 
suggests the only practical solution. No religion is the 
exclusive religion of the world. All have their uses^ 
in different ages and with different races; and as man- 
kind spiritualizes in its progress godward, the simplest 
religion — love to God and love to man, divested of 
every shred of form, and having its seat within each 
human soul — will prevail. 

May a progressive Spiritualist counts himself a Chris- 
tian ? Most certainly, if we understand the word 
Christian aright. If being a Christian involve a belief 
in being saved by the blood shed on Calvary, and in the 
deity of the man Jesus, I am not a Christian. But if it 
mean a constant determination to imitate the pure and 
the benevolent Nazarene in his virtues, then I am a 
Christian, and no bigot shall take from me this name. 
Yea, verily, in the true sense of this word, I have a 
right to this name, though I prefer the far wider and 
deeper name of Spiritualist. Christian is a word de- 
rived from the name of a man, a Jew; Spiritualist is as 
broad as Infinite Spirit, which is Infinite Soul, ex- 
pressed by an Infinite Universe. 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



L50 A HAPPY YEAR. 

LETTER FORTY-SIX. 

Self-Development Without Mortal Aid. 

November 17, 1898. 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light: 

Many letters that I receive are truly pathetic. Some 
are from persons whose strange experiences with pro- 
fessional mediums have almost driven them out of 
Spiritualism, but who turn to me as their anchor because 
I am so sure that its claims are true. Some write that just 
as they are developing" into mediumship they are beset by 
undeveloped spirits, who desire to take control of them. 
Still another class think that if they could have a per- 
sonal talk with me, or have me come and visit them at 
their own home, I could do such work with them that 
they would doubt no more. 

To all these persons I would say that there is enough 
strength, wisdom, and purity in the spiritual realms to 
supply all their needs, and that what they have to do is 
to put themselves in harmony with it. Instead of 
thinking that if tfyey could only see this one or that 
one they would be all right, thus leaning upon "an arm 
of flesh," they need to begin in solitude with their own 
individual self. 

Let them strictly ascertain what is the governing 
purpose of the life they lead (for we all have one main 
governing purpose in life, though we lose sight of it 
sometimes through passion, or a desire to please some 
one), and carefully note the motives that underlie their 
acts. The importance of this inquiry lies in the fact that 
upon our governing purpose, or our motives, depends 
the nature of the spirits who find an open doorway into 
the inner sanctum of our being. 

For instance, if our main object is to get money, if on 
meeting persons or going to places our hidden inquiry 
is, " How can I make this serve the condition of my 
pecuniary gains?" we open the door to mercenary 



A HAPPY YEAR. 151 

spirits. If we often feel unkindly or suspiciously to 
those with whom we live, then some murderer or other 
vicious spirit builds a nest within the citadel of our be- 
ing, from which it will be difficult to dislodge him. If, 
all unknown to mortals, we indulge in unclean thoughts 
and imaginings, this fact is perfectly patent to lasciv- 
ious spirits, who are attracted by the same; and they 
delightedly flock in, fan the impure flame, and indulge 
their repressed longing for sensual gratification at the 
expense of our own organism. As we thus open the door 
to unprogressive and earth bound spirits, the higher 
ones are excluded, and turn sorrowfully away. So it 
is of paramount importance to look well within, and 
remember that we attract beings who are similar to 
ourselves, until we become, by communion with high, 
powerful spirits, so developed that we can be used as 
their instruments to aid poor souls fettered by low 
longings and reminiscences, from true liberty. 

It is easy to fancy that being with strong people will 
bring us strength. But strength thus imbibed is only 
a seeming strength, and does not stand the test of an 
emergency. Just as our own muscles do not gain 
power by our watching the feats of a trained gymnast, 
so our spiritual powers do not gain by our sitting near 
and looking at those whose inner nature has " become 
strong by struggling." Some one spoke a noble truth 
when he said, " If we conquer a difficulty, the strength 
of the difficulty passes into us." The only way to be- 
come stronger is to use whatever strength we already 
have. 

A little further back I spoke of examining ourselves 
in solitude. Some are so environed that they can very 
seldom be alone. In that case they may be quite sure 
that the steady wish of their heart meets a ready re- 
sponse from the spiritual realms, and that angels of 
sympathy and helpfulness send them threads of 
strength that will in time become cable cords through 
the co-operative efforts of the seeking mortal and the 
helpful spirits. So ready are they to aid that 

" The upward glancing of an eye, 
The falling of a tear " 



L52 A HAPPY YEAR. 

are always noted by them, and they come on swift 
wings to aid us though we be unconscious of their aid. 

The .lesson taught to us by our ministering loved 
ones is this: Look not too much to other mortals, still 
environed like you with a fleshly body, the things of 
sense, and with about all they can do to keep their own 
little light a burning. Cast out every unkind thought, 
trample down every passion, think of the spiritual 
world of which you are really a denizen, think of the 
immortal power that is really yours if ) 7 ou will only 
lay hold of it, think of the golden spiritual links that 
bind all souls together (your soul, too, though it may 
be but a tiny one), think that bright angels note your 
aspirations, and do the bidding of those still more ad- 
vanced, in short, trust the soul power of the universe 
in which you dwell, and drink in help from radiant 
ones who are strong enough to impart to you. 

Having so done, turn to your daily work — to your 
husband, your wife, your child, your associates- and 
remember that every kind word you speak, every smile 
on your face, every room you neatly sweep, every hun- 
gry creature you feed, whether human or animal, every 
nail you thoroughly drive, every lesson you under - 
standingly learn, every impatient word repressed, every 
frown suppressed, every cold horse whose blanket you 
replace, every appreciative word you speak, every 
dollar you give away, in short every true and kind 
word, thought and deed, is ennobling your manhood 
and your womanhood, and is thus making you a 
brighter and more helpful spirit when the clay shackles 
drop away. Then those glorious spirits whose care 
you are, will say, '' Our little struggling child has done 
well, and shall now have a holiday in our beauti- 
ful world." There is a sweet day coming for you by 
and by, over burdened soul. 

Some feel sure they would be happy if they were 
only millionaires What a mistake! The poor million- 
aires have many a care that we know nothing of ; and 
I am sure that I would not exchange my body, washed 
a la Dio Lewis every morning, and nourished on plain, 



A HAPPY YEAR. 153 

wholesome food, for the pampered body of Mrs. Mil- 
lionaire, steamed in hot baths, stuffed with every 
abomination of the rich man's table, stimulated by cof- 
fee and poisoned by champagne. Look at her horse, 
in agony with his curb-bit, his tight check-rein, and no 
tail to keep the flies off in summer, and no hair to keep 
the cold off in winter. Look at her fat poodle. He 
can hardly waddle, so full is he of cake and spiced 
meat, and never a good run without a chain. No, 
no; I would not exchange places with Mr. Millionaire 
or his wife. 

By and by they will be ill. Surgeons, skilled by 
much vivisection of despairing dogs and pitiable rab- 
bits, will now operate on them. But they cannot save 
them, and they die. They are heaped over with flowers 
costly enough to feed a regiment of starving soldiers, 
and ponderous marble monuments will celebrate the 
imagined virtues of those whose bodies lie below. 

They will awake in spirit life. What will they have? 
He will look for his bankbook and his certificates of 
stocks, his horses and his wines, but he cannot find 
them. She will sit and call for her lady's maid and 
her diamonds, her coachman and her furs, but they will 
not be there. They will be dazed and desolate for a 
long time ; but after a while they will begin to earn 
the things that are of real value, for there is hope in a 
universe where the law of love is the final appeal, for 
even a monopolist and a millionaire. 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



154 A HAPPY YEAR. 



LETTER FORTY-SEVEN. 

Real Evidence. 

November 26, 1898. 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light : 

The rich verdue of the morning-glories has black- 
ened, and the twisted stems look bare in this Thanks- 
giving snow. But under the snow, the drifting leaves, 
and the gathering soil many seeds lie hidden, and will 
gladden us with abundant bloom when our planet 
reaches another quarter of the ecliptic. And with the 
precious self-sown seed of my own plants, I expect to 
delightedly watch those that will grow from the seeds 
sent me by that dear friend of the Cause, Mrs. Anna K. 
Clifford of Cleveland. Hers will be lovely indeed, " of 
unusual size, a beautiful blue in color, with a horizontal 
rim of white at the outer edge, while trie neck of the 
flower shows a rosy tinge." 

I have just formed the acquaintance of "The Lyceum," 
published by her husband, Mr. Tom Clifford, and 
illumined by her gentle spirit. I am very much taken 
by this weekly, and recommend it to all Spiritualists 
who desire their own children and those of others to be 
both entertained and enlightened by this admirable 
little paper. 

Several years ago I cut out from the Religio- Philo- 
sophical Journal a short article by Minot J. Savage, en- 
titled "Evidence." It gave me much to think of at the 
time, and was the key-note to much that has come to me 
since, regarding spiritual phenomena. I have just re- 
read it, and it seems to me just as valuable as when 
it first met my eyes. 

His first point is that no iteration of the statement, 
" I know it is so," is sufficient ; the facts must be es- 
tablished by evidence that would satisfy a court of 
justice. His second point is, that we must not call in 
the spirits of the dead as an explanation, till every 



A HAPPY YEAR. 155 

other conceivable theory has been shown to be inad- 
equate. The spirit theory must be proved as clearly 
as is the fact that the earth is a sphere. 

He recommends that those who have had a remark- 
able experience write it out as accurately as possible, 
and settle the date, if that can be done, and have others 
who were present do the same. . Also, if you have in 
the future such an experience, record it at once,whether 
you know that it comes true or not. Then tell some one 
of it at once, and get this person to witness your record. 
Third, if it comes out true, make a written record of 
this new fact, and have as many persons witness this 
record as possible. Always set down the dates. 

This is the true way to get an accumulation of real 
evidence. By so doing we can put it out of the power 
of opponents to say, " You think you saw such and such 
a thing," " You imagined that," or, "You and the per- 
sons with you were psychologized." That last objec- 
tion is painfully amusing, as it is spiritual investiga- 
tion alone that has taught Christendom the possibility 
of being psychologized. 

It is the pursuance of such methods that caused that 
immense audience at the closing session of the World's 
Psychical Congress in Chicago in 1893 to hang with 
breathless attention on the words of F. W. H. Myers 
of England. And it is his rigid adherence to such 
methods that has given so rare a value to the investi- 
gations of Dr. Hodgson, and to his frank and fearless 
statement of the conclusion he has reached. 

Not long ago a gentleman residing in the Middle 
West sent me a photograph of a life size portrait of 
his relative, believed to be taken through the psychic 
power of a well-known medium in Chicago. On the 
back of the photograph is a printed account of the way 
this portrait was produced, and it makes the claim that 
this special phenomenon gave absolute evidence of the 
truth of spirit-existence and spirit-return. 

And yet a careful examination of this printed state- 
ment reveals so many flaws that its value as direct 
evidence is reduced to nil. It is precisely one of those 



15G A HAPPY YEAR. 

narrations that are convincing to Spiritualists, but do 
not convince non-Spiritualists who are accustomed to 
weighing evidence. 

To premise, the originalof the portrait, a well-known 
resident of the town where this gentleman resides, 
passed to spirit-life in 1888. In 1891 the gentleman 
began his investigations into Spiritualism with the 
same medium and her companion through whom this 
portrait was obtained, in 1897, and was convinced 
through them that Spiritualism is true. I was in that 
town in 1891, conversed with this gentleman, and re- 
member the facts of the case. During the intervening 
six years he continued his acquaintance with these two 
mediums, and they had ample opportunity to search 
out all facts connected with his dead relatives. 

When this " convincing " manifestation took place in 
1897, he was at the residence of the mediums, in a room 
alone with one of them. He had brought the canvas 
for the portrait with him. He placed the canvas under 
a table in the middle of the room, a curtain was pinned 
around the table, and he and the medium waited, while 
engaged in conversation. He expressly states that 
the medium had never seen his dead relative, nor a 
picture of him. He does not give any proof of this. 
Could he have been with that medium every day and 
night during those six years, and known in that way 
that she had never seen his picture ? Or, did he make 
this statement on the word of the medium herself ? 

At the end of three hours he heard three taps upon 
the table, then, "no one else having touched the can- 
vas after he had placed it there," he took it out and 
found a life-size portrait of his dead relative. 

He does not state that he had made a thorough ex- 
amination of the floor, nor of the ceiling of the room 
directly below it. We do not therefore see a solid 
ground for his statement that no one had touched the 
canvas after he had placed it there. Remember that 
the occurrence took place at the residence of the two 
mediums. How can he prove that during the three 
hours his canvas was not taken through the floor, and 



A HAPPY YEAR. 157 

the portrait prepared beforehand, and now marked to 
duplicate his own canvas, not substituted ? Three 
hours gave ample time for all this to be done. 

We hope not to be misunderstood. We know more 
remarkable things than this have been done by decar- 
nate spirits under proved conditions that made expla- 
nation impossible only on the spirit hypothesis. What, 
we mean to say is that the account of this manifesta- 
tion and a majority of ordinary manifestations, leaves 
too many exposed places and too many flaws to allow it 
to be taken as actual evidence of the intervention of 
decarnate spirits. 

I have myself been perfectly cognizant of many 
instances of spiritual manifestation that could be ac- 
counted for only on the spiritual hypothesis. I have 
also been personally cognizant of many manifestations 
that could have been accounted for by the intervention 
of mortals alone, but which I believe to have been genu- 
ine, from the nature of the medium, from the internal 
evidence'of the communication, and from the likelihood 
that the spirits would avail themselves of the oppor- 
tunity. And I have been personally cognizant of a 
very few instances where fraud was intentionally used 
by a bogus medium. 

It is for the skeptical outside world that we insist 
that evidence be irrefragable, that there be no loop-hole 
where the enemy's arrow can find entrance. But when 
we commune with our dear decarnate friends, we de- 
mand nothing of the sort. Then it is " Soul to soul, 
like the blending of light do our souls mingle." And 
the same lofty spirit wrote me on one occasion, "The 
soul needs no tongue, my child." But these commun- 
ings are naught to the "madding crowd," though they 
are everything to the happy recipient. On such occa- 
sions we do not think of a test. Indeed, the very word 
is repugnant. But when we seek to bring a manifesta- 
tion to the notice of the outside world, in order to con- 
vince them that Spiritualism is true, we demand the 
clearest, the strongest and the most impregnable evi- 
dence. 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



158 A HAPPY YEAR. 

N. B. — It is proper to state that the gentleman who 
received the portrait as described, states later that he 
had previously marked the canvas he brought with 
him in such a way that it could not be duplicated ; 
that the portrait differs from any likeness that was ever 
taken of his dead relative ; that he selected the place 
in the room where the table should be placed, and 
made a thorough examination of the carpet ; and that 
though he did not examine the ceiling of the room 
below, that very room was occupied by persons who 
were waiting for a sitting, while this portrait was being 
produced. The only mistake was in omitting those 
circumstances in the original account. 



LETTER FORTY-EIGHT. 

Old Age Transfigured by Spiritualism. 

December 2, 1898. 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light : 

Why is it that when sweetness and light have come into 
the world, the great bulk of mankind, even in what are 
called the enlightened nations of the earth, are nearly 
unconscious of them ? 

I was led to this inquiry by the opening of an able 
article by Mr. Griffis in The Outlook of Nov. 26, entitled 
" America in the Far East." He says in youth we 
listen to the voice of hope; in maturity, to that of 
cheer; in old age, to that of warning. He asks whether 
we as a nation are at man's estate or in old age: if the 
former, we listen to the voice of cheer; if the latter, to 
that of discouragement. 

This writer does not stand alone in this view of old 
age. He has precisely the general view of mankind; 
and there is not a religion in the world that has suc- 
ceeded in making its votaries look at old age in any 
other way than this. Neither has there been a philos- 
ophy in the world that has gone any further than to 



A HAPPY YEAR. 159 

make it wisdom in old age to be resigned to it, and to 
surrender unmurmuring to what is inevitable. 

As I took in the sense of Mr. Griffis' illustration, my 
whole soul rose within me to think that the world in 
general are so blind to the natural facts revealed by 
Spiritualism alone as to think that old age is in any 
sense a period of gloom and discouragement. And so 
accustomed are they to this view that it does not occur 
to them that there is any other way to do. From the 
time of Solomon, who pictures so vividly the time when 
the grasshopper shall be a burden and desire shall fail, 
to our own generation here in America who dread the 
thought of growing old, the longing of mortals has 
been to drink of the fountain of perpetual youth. Even 
do the Christian Scientists sympathize with this fear of 
old age by promising that if one only follow their 
maxims, he need never grow old, he need never die. 

Perhaps the main point of the dread of old age lies 
in the proverb, "The young may die, but the old must." 
As long as death is feared and dreaded, so long will all 
the avenues that lead to it, as illness and old age, be 
also feared. Ah! me, how well I remember the faint- 
ing of heart, the desperate shrinking with which I 
noted the passage of decade after decade of my mortal 
career, and saw the narrowing and darkening vista, to 
be closed in at last by the tomb! 

And what I felt is felt by millions, and the only 
panacea is forgetting it, or taking refuge in the 
blood of Jesus. Ah! the pity of it, and the needless- 
ness of it ! 

Some of my readers will remember Dame Quickly's 
account of the death of Falstaff. He cried out several 
times, " God, God, God." To comfort him she bade 
him not to think of God; that she hoped there was no 
need to trouble himself with any such thoughts yet. 
But thoughts of God and old age and death itself had 
to come upon poor old Jack, and even on the master 
magician who created him, and who knew much, but 
did not know what you and I know, dear reader, that 



160 A HAPPY YEAR. 

death is not death at all, but a mere gateway between 
a lower life and a higher life. 

There is no good in thinking that the closing years 
of life are all right if we are washed in Calvary's blood, 
and that death is sweet if we are only in the arms of 
Jesus, for these are mere fancies, and have no solid 
ground of truth. And the thought that taking up such 
fancies is going to do away with the effect of a mis- 
spent life is wrong as well as foolish. 

A friend of my youth published in 1872 a very inter- 
esting Christian story. The heroine is at one time 
tending the deathbed of her father, who had lived a 
wholly useless and selfish life. This conversation is 
recorded : 

" Margaret, what shall 1 do ? " 

"Nothing, dear father, Jesus has done everything." 

•• Will his sacrifice cover the guilt of a wasted life ? " 

" Dear father, yes. It covers everything. The blood 
of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin." 

So did the man in the story, and many a man in 
actual life, pass into the life beyond hugging to himself 
the false notion that another's good deeds can be placed 
to our account, and give them the standing that can be 
acquired only by one's own acts. 

The old-time friend who wrote that story married an 
Englishman, and has lived in England many years. I 
spent a month with them in their beautiful home early 
in 1877. Fresh from Paris and from the ministrations 
of the eloquent M. Bersier, I used to repeat French 
hymns to her, and try to fortify her faltering soul by 
trusting in Jesus; for she could not then rely implicitly 
on the teachings of her own book. Some dozen years 
later I joyfully wrote her of the new, exquisite light 
that was brightening so gloriously the narrowing vista 
of my mortal life. I wrote again and again, and a few 
years ago her brother-in-law, a minister in this country, 
wrote me the following words when I wrote to him 
after my brother's transition, and my heart turned yet 
again to those who had tenderly loved him in the far- 
away clays of youth: "Mrs. 's very radical antago- 



A HAPPY YEAR. • 101 

nism to the spiritualistic views you have adopted ma3 T 
have led her to feel that it was best to discontinue an 
intercourse which could no longer be maintained on the 
old footing. This is a better way than to combat what 
one disapproves, or to seem to countenance it by passing 
it over in silence." So I remain silent because I must, 
and wait for the light that will surely come " when the 
mists have cleared away." 

Having now given some thought to the view that 
makes old age either a period of gloom and discourage- 
ment, or else cheered by hopes that are wholly fantas- 
tic and illusory, let us see what old age is to those who 
are now experiencing it in the dawn of the light of 
Spiritualism. 

Spiritualism, or rather Naturalism, as I am more and 
more inclined to call it, shows us that death is not a 
finality, but an onward step in the progress of individ- 
ual life. This being so, old age, which naturally leads 
up to this graduating day, becomes to those who have 
lived a well spent life, a period of great encouragement, 
cheer, and abounding hopes. This were true, even 
though one were to be solitary, both here and there. 
But when to this is added our knowledge of the fact 
that all whom we have dearly loved or deeply revered, 
who disappeared from mortal sight in our childhood, our 
youth, in the different stages of our maturity, and in 
advancing years, are more joyfully alive than before, 
still note our career with interest and love, and are 
awaiting the time when they can lead us into the joys 
of the spirit-land, old age becomes a time of more than 
cheer and encouragement. It becomes a time of joy- 
ful hope, and of well-nigh realization of what is so 
imminent. 

" My angels come and walk with me, 
And sweet communion hare have we ; 
They gently lead me by the hand, 
For this is heaven's borderland." 

These are some of the more obvious reasons why old 
age is a time of joy to those who are so happy as to see 
the sweetness and the light that have come into the 



162 A HAPPY YEAR. 

world. When to this is added the growing- conscious- 
ness of an imminent and beneficent indwelling soul in 
all things, of which we are part and parcel; that our 
upward strivings are helping to spiritualize the universe 
itself; that the process here begun is destined to bear 
bloom and fruitage on life's fair tree beyond our pres- 
ent power to conceive; and that we shall see the 
increasing bliss of those whom we have loved, and 
whose woes have given us anguish while here below, 
we feel the dawnings of an estatic joy that mortal 
tongue cannot express. Youth is sweet and full of 
hope, maturity brings the joy of work, of duty patiently 
fulfilled, but old age brings with it the happiness that 
springs from the angelic assurance that heaven is near, 
that our loved ones are waiting and watching, and that 
we shall soon, yea, very soon, be with them in their 
ineffable and tranquil joy. 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



LETTER FORTY-NINE. 

Revering Those Beyond and Above us. 

December 8, 1898. 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light: 

In my last letter I spoke of the great delight felt in 
old age by those who are walking the latter part of 
life's pilgrimage in the cheering light of Spiritualism, 
and of the impotence of the different religions and of 
philosophy itself to bring the same illumination. 

As has been stated before, only those dwell in 
heaven, whether embodied or disembodied, who love 
and aid all beings inferior to them in any respect, who 
love with just dealing those on a par with themselves, 
and who love and revere all beings who are superior to 
themselves in those qualities that denote the true pro- 
gress of the soul. We claim that this mental attitude 
alone betokens a real spiritual progress. If we do not 



A HAPPY YEAR. 163 

loYe and compassionate our inferiors, we have a tend- 
ency to tyranny, and need to beware. If we do not 
love and deal justly with our equals, we cannot be in 
the heavenly state, and if we do not love and revere 
those who have attained the higher rounds of the 
spiritual ladder, it looks as if we esteem ourselves so 
much that we cannot acknowledge the superiority of 
another, besides losing the powerful stimulus which is 
begotten by the desire to attain what they have at- 
tained. 

Alas! in this world there are many who act as if their 
possessing the power gave them the right to maim and 
torture the lower animals, to rob the defenseless of 
their money and their property, to beat a child, to 
abuse a woman, and to stab a sensitive heart with cruel 
words and slanderous suspicions. It is the mission of 
Spiritualism to teach its votaries to do exactly opposite 
to this ; and by thus placing an object lesson before 
those who know us most intimately, cause a true 
humanity to go like leaven from heart to heart until 
this earth has become indeed the wished-for heaven 

As to loving and treating with absolute fairness those 
who are on our level, it can only be practised by those 
in whom selfishness has been stamped out. The selfish 
person sees his own needs, he is blind to those of his 
neighbor. His wanting a thing is reason enough for 
him to seize it. If he is in low life he may be a pick- 
pocket. If he belongs to the upper ten, he may be a 
great monopolist. If he likes to talk, he monopolizes 
all the conversation. If the person be an attractive 
young man or woman, he tries to make as many of the 
opposite sex enamored with him as possible. If he is 
a doctor, a lawyer, or a minister, he feels angry at those 
who may surpass him in paying patients, in easily 
gulled clients, and in the number of devoted and 
wealthy parishioners, and will by sly innuendoes and 
tricky ways, try to divert all valuable patronage to 
himself. True love, the love " which seeketh not her 
own," is the only panacea for such moral corruption as 
this. 



164 A HAPPY YEAR. 

A gentle, tender, and helpful spirit toward the weak 
lays the foundation of an angelic character ; equal and 
absolute justice toward our equals bespeaks the round- 
ing out of a manly development ; but it is to our third 
point, a reverence toward those whose present status is 
the goal we seek, that we now ask the attention of those 
who would tread supernal paths. 

To be able to revere is a lofty gift of the soul. Its 
expression is wanting in many, though the germ, like 
every other spiritual seed, is innately implanted and 
will in time develop. We are grieved when we hear a 
person say that he reverences no one. It is usually a 
young person who says this, and such a one tells the 
truth, and it makes one pity him. Persons more ad- 
vanced in life have learned to revere those who possess 
virtues greater than their own. Though they may 
themselves be what the world calls bad, they feel that 
reverence is due, though they do not try to imitate. 
But young persons of the type adverted to do not know 
enough to revere They will learn some time in the 
future, and the new consciousness will flood their souls 
with a sweetness at present all unknown. 

Such a one sometimes excuses his want of reverence, 
or veneration, by declaring that those feelings should 
be felt toward God alone. But to be able to revere the 
absolute, the illimitable, the unconditioned, one must 
begin by feeling thus toward the lesser beings that one 
can take within one's own comprehension. As one of 
old asked how one could love God, whom he had not 
seen, unless he love his brother, whom he had seen, so 
do we question how one can revere the Infinite without 
revering the beings whom we know who merit it ? In 
other words, a feeling due to unconditioned being is the 
expansion of the germ that begins to work on the 
objects and the persons near at hand. 

I am glad to be able to reverence finite beings who 
are worthy of being reverenced; and I would far rather 
revere Ralph Waldo Emerson, who was possessed of 
purity, nobility, and an almost matchless humility, than 
such a God as Moses taught the Jews to worship. That 



A HAPPY YEAR. 165 

God was revengeful, selfish, cruel, and extremely 
jealous. He himself declared that he was so jealous 
that it made him angry if a Jew worshipped any other 
god. As to the Ten Commandments, it is not to the 
credit of the Jewish race at that ancient time to have to 
be told not to do such things as are alluded to in most 
of the ten. 

Doubtless some of your readers have heard what a 
Japanese said about these ten Mosaic injunctions. 
Some zealot had brought them to his notice. After 
reading them, the Japanese quietly remarked: "They 
are well written and well put together ; but my people 
do not need to be told not to do such things, as they do 
not do them." 

In my vain efforts to find some denomination of 
Christianity with which I could affiliate, I at one time 
went a good deal to the Episcopal church. Though I 
tried to give it a fair trial and be very devout, it did 
seem queer to me to respond : " Lord, have mercy on 
me, and incline my heart to keep this law," after hear- 
ing the clergyman read, "Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt 
not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal," and the rest 
of it. I do not remember ever wanting to do any of 
these things. 

Dharmapala said a grand thing, though it would be 
scouted by those who advocate the " righteousness be- 
ing filthy rags " theory. This wise Hindoo said that 
the greatest happiness conceivable is to be conscious of 
one's own purity. May all we love and all who love us 
have much of this kind of happiness ! Then shall we 
be more and more revered as old age advances, and 
when liberation day comes, we shall joyfully ascend to 
dwell with those whom we have revered on high. 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



L66 A HAPPY YEAP 



LETTER FIFTY. 



Intensely Cold Weather and Its Cause. 

December 15, 1898. 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light: 

There is a very good man near here who will go 
straight to heaven when he ' ' dies. " I do not know 
what denomination of Christianity claims him for her 
own. He may be a Roman Catholic for aught I know. 
He may be a Methodist. The only indicator of his 
religious proclivities is that his son is named Calvin, 
and yet that indicates nothing, as that too suggestive 
name may be a family heirloom with the ancestral Cal- 
vinism worn threadbare. But this man is surely going 
to heaven when he dies, and we will now tell the reason 
why. Last Tuesday night, the coldest of the season so 
far, this man took in five outcast dogs and let them lie 
in his kitchen all night. They lay in comfort, while the 
bitter wind raged without, and I in my warm bed could 
not sleep for thinking of the homeless and hungry dogs 
and cats, the poorly sheltered horses and cows, the aged 
shivering under insufficient clothing, with scanty fuel, 
and the little children of the drunkard who have no warm 
bedding, no thick socks and shoes, no warm, nourishing 
food, because the money of the author of their being has 
been squandered for the most baleful thing that has 
cursed humanity, the alcoholic stimulant. 

Such nights I cannot sleep, for thinking that if it be 
so cold in New Jersey, what must it be in the unpro- 
tected stretches of Minnesota and the adjacent regions. 
On these prairies there is no wood, and the unsheltered 
brutes — unable to find turf beneath the snow, nor a 
drop of water, for it is frozen solid — fall before the 
merciless blizzard and perish by the thousand. Little, 
little does the minion of fortune know of the pain, the 
agony endured by man and beast in inclement, wintry 
weather. 



A HAPPY YEAR. 167 

I heard of a rich woman who went out for a short 
drive on a bitter cold winter day. Her finely capari- 
soned horses needed the exercise, and she went to buy 
some furbelow at fashion's bazaar. Noting the extreme 
cold, which penetrated even her sealskin wrappings, she 
thought of a poor woman she knew who probably had 
no fuel. She bade her coachman telephone to her coal- 
dealer to send a quarter of a ton of coal to this woman's 
home, and sank back amid her luxurious cushions in the 
serene consciousness that she had done a remarkably 
good deed. 

But alas! On reaching her exquisitely appointed 
home, after the maid had removed her wraps, and she 
felt the summer heat of the whole mansion, she con- 
cluded that it was not very cold after all, and that she 
had made a mistake. So she bade her coachman coun- 
termand the order, and no coal was sent "to the poor 
woman. 

To return to this very good man who took in the five 
freezing dogs, I must add that his wife will also go to 
heaven when she dies; for she not only made no oppo- 
sition to receiving her four-footed guests, but gave them 
a warm reception, and did not let them go supperless to 
bed. 

Before quitting this subject, I must say a word of 
little Calvin. He is said to be a naughty boy. In spite 
of this, or it may be because of this, he is a great favorite 
with me. If he comes to my house after he has gone I 
hasten to see what he has unscrewed, or unwound, or 
undone. And as he knows that piercing and dismal 
shrieks will surely bring him the thing he craves, he 
startles all within hearing by his determined outcries, 
while those who know say it is only Calvin who wants 
something. Of course he is too much of a philosopher to 
cry for what there is no hope of obtaining. He believes 
in the "conservation of energy." 

I always liked the boy, but especially since the fol- 
lowing incident. One day on a walk the conversation 
turned on Calvin's naughtiness On the principle that 



L68 A HAPPY YEAR. 

it makes children bad to treat them as if they are bad, 
I said, " Oh! no; he is a good boy. I know he will be 
a good boy. " His aunt chimed in with me and said, 
" Yes, he is going- to be a very good boy. " Startled by 
this prospect that seemed to be opening before him, all 
the elf could say was, "When?" His dark, gloomy 
eyes showed his recoil from entering such new paths. 
1 have seldom been more amused, and hope it will be 
many a day before little Calvin will walk demurely 
therein. 

Ever since living for thirteen years in Minneapolis, 
noting the bitter complaints of human beings regarding 
the intensity of the cold, and the dumb anguish of the 
helpless brutes, I have pondered on the original cause 
of what is so obviously wrong. In the old days it was 
thought to be very wicked to find fault with rain or 
snow, or heat or cold, because all these things were 
manifestations of the personal will of a personal God, and 
to rebel against the weather was to rebel against him, 
and might, if persisted in, cause the rebel to be struck 
dead. 

Of course it all looks very different now. I have long 
thought, and I think my position is defined in "The 
Bridge Between Two Worlds," that demigods — great 
but yet finite beings — had to do with the bringing of 
our planet into separate, individual form. This whole 
subject, and a reasonable explanation of the many mis- 
takes that we see in the realm of nature, are most 
admirably and clearly expressed by our Californian 
philosopher, Charles Dawbarn, in his articles on "The 
Theology of the Twentieth Century." published in your 
issues of Aug. 20, Aug. 27 and Sept. 3 of the current 
year. Those familiar with his lucid presentation remem- 
ber that he makes Great Experimenters use the already 
existing materials and forces of the universe for new 
formations, and thus accounts for what we see to be 
unwise or wrong. 

For instance, just as we may put excellent goods, 
linings and trimmings into the hands of a dressmaker, 



A HAPPY YEAR. 169 

who makes them into an ill-fitting or an unbecoming- 
robe, so these Experimenters out of go.od material go to 
work to make a world, and, instead of the result being 
" very good," it is not as good as it might have been in 
wiser or more experienced hands. 

If our earth only spun round in the same plane as she 
goes around the sun, then we should not have these 
violent changes in the seasons, and find that the differ- 
ence between summer and winter increases as we go 
from the equator. For instance, in Minneapolis, which 
is forty-five degrees from the equator, the summers are 
far hotter and the winters far colder than in northern 
New Jersey, which is less than forty-one degrees. That 
is the reason that the Minnesota climate, though stimu- 
lating at first, exhausts one's vitality after a few years 
residence there. And, alas! coal, which one can buy 
here for from four dollars to five dollars, costs there from 
eight dollars to ten dollars a ton. So the poor must 
suffer there, and even the rich find it difficult to keep 
warm when the thermometer registers from zero to ten 
degrees below zero for three months at a time, as I have 
known it to do during my residence in Minnesota. 

Some of Mr. Dawbarn's Great Experimenters gave 
great suffering to organic life, when they set the axis on 
which we revolve awry to the axis of the orbit of the 
earth. Jupiter tips only a little more than three degrees, 
while we tip twenty-three and a half degrees. Mars 
and Saturn tip worse than we do ; while the variations 
in the seasons in Venus and Mercury are so unreason- 
able that I, for one, am very thankful that my soul did 
not take embodiment on either one of those intense 
little planets. 

Those Earth Experimenters did us a very poor turn 
in my opinion, and I hope, Mr. Editor, that when you 
and I evolve in the course of ages into world-builders, 
we shall do our work more steadily and more harmo- 
niously than those who had the handling of the earth. 

It is to be hoped that no very orthodox person will 
have the reading of this letter. I have said to several 



170 A HAPPY YEAR. 

of them of late that I am very thankful not to be 
responsible for these great storms and the suffering 
caused by this intense cold. But it seems to me more 
tolerable to see suffering caused by the want of care or 
experience of finite beings than to feel that it is caused 
by the intentional will and purpose of an Infinite Being, 
who would be more worthy of love and reverence by 
making all his creatures bask in happiness and sweet 
serenity. 

The impossibility of harmonizing an omnipotent, 
predestinating, and infinite personality, who does not 
work through free agents, with the existence of wrong 
and pain, has driven many an inquiring soul into 
atheism. Poor little Wolfgang von Goethe was five 
when news came of the terrible earthquake at Lisbon, 
and he pestered and alarmed his young mother by 
asking how God could be good and allow twenty thousand 
people to be killed in such a way. She was scarcely out 
of girlhood herself, being only eighteen when he was 
born, and of course she could give him no adequate 
explanation. If she had known that Infinite Power 
works by finite instrumentalities in great things as well 
as in small, she could have quieted his perturbed little 
mind by an explanation that is comprehensible because 
it is reasonable. 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



A HAPPY YEAR. 171 

LETTER FIFTY-ONE. 

Vivisection. 

December 25, 1898. 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light: 

I have been puzzled for weeks to know what was the 
matter with me; but when, during- this week, I found 
myself prostrated, with cold shivers going up and down 
the spinal column every other day, I submitted to the 
inevitable, and knew that it was malaria. So I went 
to the druggist, to consult with him as to the most 
appropriate poison to fit the case. Quinine was sug- 
gested, but rejected on account of its affecting the head, 
and I can allow nothing to interfere with The Banner 
letters. So I am taking something else, warranted to 
either kill or cure. If the latter, I will let you knpw 
about it next week. 

My father, in humorous vein, once said : Man is a 
biped, but instead of two legs it is two extremes. When 
he is tired of standing on one of them, he draws it up 
and puts the other down. To no class of men does this 
illustration apply better than to the medical profession. 
If you are writing a story and your hero is ill, just note 
which quarter of the century he belongs to, learn the 
medical fad then prevailing, and treat him accordingly. 

How well this fact was illustrated by Dr. Bland in 
two admirable stories published in The Banner some 
time ago ! One was laid at the time when blood-letting 
was the remedy for every disease, and some of his char- 
acters lose, or nearly lose their lives, by having the 
precious life fluid stolen out of their veins. Even the 
great Washington passed from the mortal plane sooner 
than needful by being phlebotomized in his last illness. 

Each phase in the medical panorama gives place in 
time to another. Most of these methods have been 
practiced on the human family alone, but the closing 
quarter of the nineteenth century has witnessed such 



172 A HAPPY V'EAR. 

appalling and such atrocious tortures inflicted upon 
helpless brutes in the name of science, as well nigh 
eclipse the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition. But 
this atrocity is only another medical fad, and will in 
time give way to something else. 

As a rule, the most earnest advocates of the excising 
and dismembering practice are the surgeons and doc- 
tors about forty years old, though we know of some 
older doctors who for ambition and to enhance their 
fame have bowed their knee before this bloody Moloch. 
But though these excising and dismembering processes 
are earnestly advocated by surgeons who were gradu- 
ated fifteen or twenty years ago, we are glad to note 
that a salutary reaction is already setting in, and that the 
younger surgeons of intelligence and independence who 
have had the best advantages belong many of them to 
the reactionary school. They believe that the advant- 
ages o£ vivisection have been enormously exaggerated, 
and advocate and practice a return to the older and safer 
process of assisting nature rather than attempting to 
coerce her. My acquaintance among surgeons and phy- 
sicians of the newer schools is not large, but I already 
know of several, some of whom have studied in Europe 
and graduated quite lately, who belong to this reaction- 
ary class. They will be bitterly opposed by those who 
belong to the torture school ; but their methods will 
win, while the cruel ones will die away. 

Thirty years ngo, if there was knee trouble, the wise 
surgeons aided nature by protective and ingeniously 
devised appliances, and in most cases the cure was com- 
plete. But these excising practitioners cut the whole 
joint right out. If the patient has a good constitution 
he gets over it, but he can never bend his leg again. 

One of the trump cards played by the vivisectionists 
is that if a person's appendix is excised he can never 
have append'citis ; and that they have to do it to a great 
many animals before they dare try it on a human being. 
And to support their practice, they state that what used 
to be called enteritis or peritonitis was really appendi- 
citis, and that the patient need not have died if his 
appendix had only been cut out. 



A HAPPY YEAR. 173 

But my learned and "reactionary" friends tell me 
that when these cases are examined they do not find 
anything in the appendix at all, and that it is the old- 
fashioned inflammation of the bowels, caused perhaps 
by overworking them by excessive and improper food, 
with the whole human sewage system clogged and 
unrelieved. 

It is reasonable to suppose that when there is an 
accumulated and undigested mass in the ileac region, it 
must be difficult to raise it against gravitation into the 
ascending colon. I should say that flushing the colon 
in a case like this is far better than to be stretched on a 
vivisecting table to have one's appendix cut out, after 
first cutting through the abdominal wall. 

Several years ago a young girl went to a hospital to 
be treated for some local irritation. She was poor and 
unattended and the surgeons removed bodily the whole 
of the generative organs, without her knowledge or her 
previous consent. Being healthy, she was recovering, and 
then learned the terrible thing that had been done to 
her. She was to have been married immediately after 
leaving the hospital. She was poor, there was nothing 
to be done, her life was ruined, she was unsexed. 

I suppose the one thing more than another that a 
human being possesses is his own body. And just as 
we have the right to use our money wbi]e we live, and 
make such disposition of it after our death as we choose, 
so have we the right to say effectually what shall and 
what shall not be done to our body (unless criminals) 
while living, and to order the disposition of the deserted 
body after we have ceased using it. If I should have 
pneumonia, I will not have my pectoral wall cut into, 
to enable me to breathe a few hours longer by freeing 
the lungs of some of the pus. All the organs, limbs, 
and everything else within my epidermis are my own 
personal possessions, and I will not have them cut into, 
excised, dismembered, or mutilated in any way, be I 
alive or dead. 

And in the eye of right and justice, every married 
woman in the w T orld has the same governance over her 



174 A HAPPY YEAR. 

personal, physical self that a single woman has. When 
they realize this, and live according to this, a slavery 
worse than the coolie trade, worse than negro bondage, 
worse than the chain of the galley slave, will have been 
brought to an end. 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 



LETTER FIFTY-TWO. 

Reunion with Our Loved Ones in the 
Spirit World. 

December 30, 1898. 
To the Editor of The Banner of Light : 

A lovely kinswoman of mine, quite advanced in years, 
admitted to me yesterday with some hesitation that she 
really thinks we may be permitted in the next world to 
recognize our friends and to enjoy some companionship 
with them. She said she was brought up to believe 
that we should not even know each other there on 
account of being absorbed in God and Jesus. But the 
sweet thought of seeing the dear ones again, especially 
her husband, whom she deems far too good for her here, 
is stealing into her heart, and I could see the result of 
something I said to her on a previous visit. 

I had suddenly said : " Oh, my dear, how happy, 

happy, you will be to meet F again !" " Oh, don't !" 

she said ; but I would go on. " F will be so glad 

to see you, and will love you more than ever, because 
you were so good to her little boy, whom she had to 

leave on earth without a mother." F was (is, I 

mean) her favorite sister, and her little boy was a 
cripple. This dear lady keeps aloof from Spiritualism, 
fearing it is a delusion invented by the Enemy of souls, 
in order to make those who accept it the future denizens 
of his dread abode. But the little seeds of hope fly 
everywhere on angel pinions, and sometimes take root 
in hearts that we have longed to cheer, but almost lost 
all hope f doing so. 



A HAPPY YEAR. 175 

Of all the exquisite revelations made by this latter 
day promise of glory, it seems to me that the very 
dearest is the knowledge that families whose members 
love each other will be reunited in the spirit-world. 
And there is no qualification, no reservation, no hesita- 
tion in our delight in the thought. 

If we ask our church friends if they do not feel sure 
of meeting those they love again, they hesitate, and 
temper their reluctant "yes" with an "if." "Yes," 
they say, " we shall meet each other again, if we are in 
Christ — if we have given our hearts to the Savior." And 
the doubt whether they and those they love are really 
Christians, and the knowledge that many estimable 
friends are not, makes them walk with downcast eyes 
and bated breath during their stay on the earth. 

It is indeed delightful to get out of "these mists and 
vapors, these earthly damps," out of the regions of ifs 
and vain wishes, into the clear sunlight of a natural 
universe. In this universe of nature, being in this body 
or out of this body makes no difference. If we know 
and love each other here, we shall know and love each 
other there. If our sweetest pleasure here is to feel the 
hand-clasp of affection, and to look love into eyes that 
look with responsive iove into our own, we shall have 
precisely that pleasure there, for " souls are not denatu- 
ralized by death." 

Some are so absorbed here in individual love and 
companionship that they forget to shed the tender 
sprays of affection on other hearts ; they forget to 
revere those souls who have passed on to higher stages 
of development ; they forget the beneficent plan of the 
universe, and the unerring sequences of cause and 
effect. If they continue thus while here, they will be 
the same there, at least for a while. 

But they are not wicked in being and doing so ; they 
are simply undeveloped, and narrower than they will 
be by and by. Such persons are told by the Church 
that they are worshiping the created rather than the 
creator ; that God is a jealous God, and that he will 
take their idol away, and thus force them in anguish to 



176 A HAPPY YEAR. 

bow to himself alone. But these statements are untrue. 
Infinite God is far too great, too self-poised, to be jeal- 
ous concerning the feelings of any finite beings toward 
each other. God, if we allow ourselves to say anything 
of what is obviously beyond our finite comprehension, 
is the fountain of absolute reason. God walks a path- 
less way beyond any mortal thought, and yet the gleam 
of reason that we see in our little individual self is the 
earnest of infinite potencies beyond. 

Whether here or there, we may enjoy the companion- 
ship of those we love, we may give love for love, we may 
give worship for worship, for love's own sake. As we 
go on and enlarge our sphere of thought and feeling, 
we shall expand toward those bright beings whom we 
shall see walking on those supernal heights. We shall 
also come to realize more deeply and assuredly the solid 
groundwork of all physical formations, and all spheres 
of thought, intellect, and emotion, and the unerring law 
that makes the permanent progress of each and all 
depend on righteous action, righteous feeling, and 
reasonable thinking. 

In all these paths of progression, we may sometimes 
walk alone. But in that case, we shall return later to 
the companionship of those we love, let them aid us to 
climb yet higher, or ourselves stoop to them, and 

"Allure to brighter worlds, and lead the way." 

Yes ; intellectual exchange of thought, soul-compan- 
ionship, and soul-communion will enhance the pleasure 
of action, and sweeten our periods of repose, whether 
in the body or out of the body, and this will continue 
to be the case just so long as we remain finite. Should 
we ever expand into infinity, should we ever return 
ultimately to God, as the sublime Plato expressed it, 
we shall be in a condition that we cannot comprehend 
now, and we cannot divine whether we shall then want 
companionship. 

One passing through the seventh decade of human 
life naturally (I say naturally, but I cannot answer for 
those who have been denaturalized by old dogmas),. 



A HAPPY YEAR. 17? 

naturally longs for the day when he or she will be freed 
from the tenement of clay, and pass to the embrace of 
those whom he loved so dearly, and then lost for awhile. 
When I think that the day is coming when I shall again 
be with my father, my mother, and the brother who 
was freed in 1896, a feeling of joy comes over me that 
is well nigh ecstasy. There are many others I shall be 
glad to see, relatives, friends, old comrades and co- 
workers ; but these three will be first and dearest — 
my father, my mother, Elnathan. 

I was ten when my mother died, and we sailed away 
that night, leaving her precious form in the bosom of 
the lone ocean isle of St. Helena. Before I was eleven 
my father sailed again for Burmah, leaving Adoniram,. 
Elnathan and me to grow up without a father and a 
mother. They were together until after graduation 
from college. I was alone. My father died near Burmah 
the fourth year after, and there is a little daguerreo- 
type of me that he used to cry over. 

The year after he was graduated from college Elna- 
than had a sunstroke, and the fourth year after he was 
immured in an insane hospital at the age of twenty-six. 
He remained in an insane hospital for thirty-two years. 
During all those years I never had one pleasure unshad- 
owed by his condition. He never lost his memory nor 
his individuality, nor the consciousness that he was a 
prisoner, immured like a felon, as he bitterly told me. 

When he was fifty-eight I was allowed to take him to 
my home, and we were together the last year of his 
earth-life. The last eight months he was all my own. 
We were alone together. Love and the knowledge that 
he was safe with his sister made him sane. Then he 
went to father and mother. 

See Elnathan again, dear reader ? Oh, what a happy 
day that will be ! Tears of joy fall from my eyes. He 
came back to me a feeble, paralyzed old man. When 
I see him again he will be young, bright, strong, exquis- 
itely beautiful, and radiantly happy. Our youthful com- 
panionship will be restored. We shall gather the wild 



178 A HAPPY YEAR. 

roses and the swamp pinks again, and revel in our 
favorite authors, some of whom we shall see. Our 
parents will smile on our joy. 

" Over the river faces I see, 

Fair as the morning, looking for me ; 
Free from their sorrow, grief, and despair, 
Waiting and watching patiently there. 

■ 4 ' Father and mother, safe in the vale, 

Watch for the boatman, wait for the sail, 
Bearing the loved ones over the tide 
Into the harbor, near to their side. 

" Brother and sister, gone to that clime, 
Wait for the others, coming sometime ; 
Safe with the angels, whiter than snow, 
Watching for dear ones waiting below. 

44 Sweet little darling, light of the home, 
Looking for some one, beckoning, ' Come,' 
Bright as a sunbeam, pure as the dew, 
Anxiously looking, mother, for you, 

Chorus — 
* ' Looking this way, yes, looking this way, 
Loved ones are waiting, looking this way, 
Fair as the morning, bright as the day, 
Dear ones in glory, looking this way." 

Yours for humanity and for spirituality. 

Abby A. Judson. 



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